


Glass Prison

by MemoryMonkey



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Angst and Feels, Bullying, Emotional Growth, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Especially Amity, Eventual Fluff, F/F, High level of gay, Light Sadism, Loneliness, Luz is a bean and we love her, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ownership, Physical Abuse, Rating May Change, Secrets, Toxic Relationship, characters are 16
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27154129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoryMonkey/pseuds/MemoryMonkey
Summary: Luz was just the drop of sunlight Amity needed in her life - because losing her parents at a young age was not easy for her. When the twins moved away to live with relatives, Amity made plans to live with her friend Boscha so she could stay at Hexside. Dwelling in the shock of loss and self-blame was made no easier when Boscha started doing whatever she wanted with Amity.OR Boscha is a sadist super pervert who Amity has to put up with until a certain human comes to Hexside.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 115
Kudos: 328





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Sapphire_Quarry for all her help

The careless slamming of a door from the floor below was the first sign that hell was about to break loose. Amity had been hunched over a table in her room, desperately trying to complete her assignments before Boscha got home from Grudgby practise but the rumbling impact she felt through the floor signified that she had failed. Instantly her quiet place of study after school had become a nerve-wracking distraction with various incessant bumps and huffs coming from the floor below.

Amity gripped her pen tightly and tried to scribble her notes faster, only to drop it as the cramps in her wrist grew stronger and a nervous sweat broke out across her palms. She'd been late on several assignments recently and only had until tomorrow to complete this one, so she could only silently pray that Boscha's shower would last long enough for her to do so. Abominations. Chapter 6: Advanced commands. She only needed to write to the end of the page.

Her ears pricked up again at footsteps storming up the stairs. Heavy, negligent, furious. Perhaps she'd have to wait until the shower started until she could focus again - but Amity's muscles turned to ice when the door behind her flew open and she heard something fall to the floor. She gasped and spun around, not sparing the mess a thought as she rose to her feet just in time to be forcefully shoved against the wall behind her.

Winded, an indignant huff escaped her lips as her air left her lungs. The small of her back had caught uncomfortably against the hard wood furniture behind her but her attention was demanded by the disgruntled scowl centimetres from her face.

"Boscha," she wheezed, her arms automatically moving to try to alleviate the weight that was crushing her against the wall, a brief panic flaring in her mind as her lungs disobeyed her.

She received no response but the sharp frustrated glint in Boscha's eyes turning into dark disapproval as she forcibly grabbed Amity's wrists and pinned them against the wall beside her.

"Hands off me," she spat.

Amity gulped, panting as air finally filled her lungs again. She flinched as Boscha pressed into her, wishing to readjust her position to ease the pain on the line of bruises on her back.

"Bad day?" She asked nervously. She couldn't push the other girl off her if she tried - it would only make things worse. Deceitfully well-maintained nails dug into Amity's wrists, threatening to cut her skin and drawing a slight whimper from Amity, who clamped her mouth shut as Boscha's knuckles turned white.

"What do you think?" An irritated response as though the question shouldn't have been asked.

Before Amity could respond, a rough hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, pinning one arm uncomfortably against her back and twisting it against her shoulder. The rough grip lingered and the sharp sting on her fragile skin only grew.

"Boscha-" Amity whined, cut off as the girl pressed her hand against the back of Amity's head, rubbing her face into the wall. She thinned her eyes, hissing as her shoulder was bent into the wall where it met familiar bruising.

"Course it was a bad day. I'm pissed," Boscha spoke roughly. "And stop acting all precious."

"What do you mean-Ah! Bosha!" Amity cried out, barely able to get a word in before sharp teeth sank into her ear, a trace of hot blood already decorating Boscha's fang. "B-Boscha! Please stop it! Boscha please! Please!" She shouted, now writhing in a futile effort to move the other girl's weight off her but with each movement driving her against her bruising and only one free arm, it was of no use.

Quickly the other girl stopped, and Amity felt a low chuckle against her pulsing ear that sent a shiver down her spine.

"I do like it when you say my name like that." A breath against her cold wound on her ears caused Amity to shudder and recoil, but a hand stayed pressed firmly against her head, holding her in place. She thinned her eyes with vitriol as a tongue flicked against the puncture but she couldn't stop her pathetic pained mewl from filling the room.

"What do you want?" Amity asked darkly, biting her lip as her shoulder cried out for release.

"What happens when you talk back to me?" Boscha warned, her voice falling in pitch. Amity kept quiet - it was rhetorical. She would sleep the night outside the house in the rain. She'd be kicked until she would be limping at school the next day. She'd be tied up in her room until Boscha got back from school. It had all happened before.

She heard another mocking laugh as the girl behind her registered her resignation.

"I want amusement," Boscha eventually answered her. "And you're doing just fine," she whispered, yanking Amity's arm up before quickly letting go as the pale-skinned girl cried out, staggering across the wall as the force holding her in place disappeared. After inadvertently leaning on her bed for support, Amity sat down and tried to bring her hand up to soothe her ear before realising the movement put her shoulder in a lot of pain. She ignored pitiless grin she was receiving.

"Glad to hear it," Amity eventually responded, fighting the frustration out of her voice. Her heart sank with dread and she quickly realised her mistake as Boscha raised an eyebrow.

"Don't like that tone, Mits."

"I - I'm sorry," Amity began but shut her mouth when Boscha shook her head.

"I've already told you," Boscha spoke, scanning the room until her eyes came to rest on the book Amity was writing in. Amity's heart skipped a beat. "I'm in a bad mood!" She shouted, raising her hand into the air and effortlessly drawing a circle with her fingers - burning it to a crisp before Amity could even stand up. "Yeah, that helps," the girl gave herself a satisfied nod. Amity gripped the bedsheets hard to stop herself from exploding at her. "Oh yeah, Mits," Boscha spoke, reaching to her bag at the side and fishing out a small book. "Before you do that, do page thirty nine for me," she casually said, tossing it towards Amity who caught it awkwardly between both hands just before it hit her face and opened it up to skim-read.

"Wait, Boscha I don't know the first thing about imbuement potions-"

"Then find out!" Boscha shouted, making for the door. "I'm not in the mood." She slammed it behind her.

She wouldn't give Boscha the satisfaction, but now that she was alone she dropped the potions book on the floor and turned the other way to curl up tightly on the bed and face the wall. As the muffled sound of the shower down the hallway filled the room, Boscha was done with Amity for the moment and a pensive ambience arose, helped by the light drizzle of rain on the roof above.

It was at times like these, where Amity gently traced her finger across her ear and flinched - only to find a new trace of blood on her fingertip, that she wished she had chosen the healing coven. To boast Hexside's blue uniform and be rid of the mess of dark spots and scratches over her body. Though that wasn't the only thing she needed to be healed.

She remembered eight years ago - when she was eight years old, her mother coming into her room and holding her hand, telling her she had to be strong because her father had passed away. She and the twins had no idea leading up to it that he was even ill. He wasn't the perfect father by any means, and Amity could count the number of memories they shared on one hand if you put aside that of the constant scolding and expectations. They were happy memories - memories of picnics on hillsides and fascination for learning and magic. Memories of smiles and soft embraces and everything just making sense.

The dark shade of fear and uncertainty made itself known in her life in a completely new way after that. Edric fracturing his arm meant a fear he might succumb to his injuries. Mother taking a business trip for a few days meant she might never see her again. Nothing going wrong meant Amity wasn't doing a good enough job on picking up the hints.

Five years passed and, though life was never the same, things had become manageable. At thirteen years old, Amity was studying the abominations track at Hexside at her mother's request. She caught on quickly when her mother started to grow ill.

_Mother, you won't die from this illness, will you?_ Amity would ask her each day, and each day she would respond _A Blight will be strong_. The thought of losing her too was unfathomable. It was a year later, a short while after Amity's fourteenth birthday, when the illness took her life too and Amity realised she had misinterpreted her mother's words - she was instead telling Amity that she had to be strong when mother was gone.

She remembered the unreal feeling when she was stood in her bedroom, completely alone. Mother's body was in the process of being moved out of the house and with it, her identity. She was, at the time, too young to have her own in her parents' absence. It was like the ground had disappeared beneath her and nothing ever reappeared in its place. She didn't know why they both had to go and she was left. With all the pressure that had been placed on her and not the twins, while they grieved their loss, Amity felt like it was her fault.

She hadn't seen them in two years.

Days after her mother's death, her brother and sister had moved to live with their aunt and Amity would have too, had it not been too great an inconvenience for Lilith, who had taken Amity under her wing not long before then. Besides, her mother wanted her to enlist at Hexside to join the abominations coven before eventually joining the Emperor's coven. She didn't know if her mother's dying wish would have been for her to join the Emperor's coven or for her to be happy, but she decided to stay at Hexside for her parents' sake.

That's how she ended up making long-term living arrangements with her best friend at the time - Boscha. Life seemed to get harder and stranger at each turn but, for a short while, things seemed to settle down as her friend tried to help her through her insecurities.

That was before the feud between Boscha's family and her own became apparent - as the months passed, her friend's mother grew less tolerant of Amity's presence and began to disregard her and as Boscha grew into the uncaring teenager she is today, she began to realise that she could mess with Amity and there was nothing Amity could do about it.

Teasing turned into bullying and, after two years, it had become abuse. Amity was Boscha's toy and they both knew it.

That was why at times like now, where Amity idly stared through her window, she didn't just wish she had chosen the healing coven. She wished she could be one of the millions of raindrops that fell from the sky and splashed onto the ground, disappearing without a trace.

But she wasn't, and the sun was dipping low in the sky so Amity picked up the fallen stack of books by the door, did her best to hide the marks on her wrist and set off for the library to learn about imbuement potions.


	2. Chapter 2

Amity was not a heavy sleeper, and was able to survive on less sleep than most. That being said, Boscha rarely disturbed her during the night unless she was drunk, which allowed her to take solace in the peace of the darkness. From years of lying awake, waiting and listening, Amity had grown connected to the various chirps and calls of the wildlife around them. There was a family of owls, for instance, that often nestled in the woodlands beside their house to the left of Amity's bed. She had never seen them but they had made themselves known to her.

Spurred on more by fear of consequence than a passion for learning, Amity had worked late into the night with a borrowed library book on one side and Boscha's workbook on her other. She had initially been as excited to learn potions as any other school of magic, yet as Boscha's academic complacency grew worse and Amity wondered if she knew more than the potions track witch about her own subject, potions became a chore. One she often had to put before abominations.

With her muscles unwilling to move, Amity let out a tired breath as early morning sunlight seeped into her eyes, electing to pull the cover tighter over her body. She didn't know how long she'd slept for, but she had curled up tightly during that time. When she did open her eyes, Boscha's bright workbook stood out to her atop her bedside table, her borrowed library book underneath it. Her own work - now just a few sheets of paper in the absence of her book - was cradled within her arms, a pencil wedged between its creased pages.

"Fuck," she mumbled, shaking messy, frayed hair out of her eyes. Whatever Boscha had done to her shoulder the day before, it hadn't been insignificant - it burned with each movement, even after the night's rest. Ignoring this, when she unfolded the paper, she realised it was barely legible. She didn't remember writing half of it, but she wanted to complete her assignment again before falling asleep, and it was almost done. It seemed like she had paused mid-sentence the night before, and Amity couldn't figure out what she had been thinking at that time. Abomination glyphs and terms merged in her head with imbuement processes. She was probably going to get in trouble with her teacher again.

Though she might have time to redo some sections of her writing and salvage the work she had done, if she could just - she held that thought, blinking in confusion as she heard the door shut on the floor below. Quickly her eyes darted up to the clock, only to see that school would be starting in a small number of minutes. Amity cursed, leaping up from her bed and only then realising she was still in her uniform but had no time to clean up. While grabbing everything she'd need from her room and ramming it into her bag, she spotted Boscha hurrying down the path, Grudgby gear in hand. She had a big game today, one she'd been training hard for during the past few weeks. As the girl jogged towards the main road and towards the school, Amity allowed herself a wistful respite.

Back when Amity had first moved in, Boscha tried her hardest to help her. Back when they were just fourteen-year-old girls and best friends who lead the school's _cool girl_ clique, they would walk to school together every day and readily confide their deepest secrets with one another. They would hug when they ran into each other in school corridors and Boscha would hold Amity's hand and tell her she would be okay whenever she cried.

But now a cruel, opaque rift had sprung up between them, its tides pulling them apart - though it seemed that Boscha had ridden its torrent upstream and Amity had been drowned underneath it. If the girl cared at all she didn't show it, and Amity was almost late to school.

She wasn't late, though barely on time. She did try to be a model student despite everything, and though stress and sleeplessness had long since robbed her of her cherished top student star, she was still achieving pretty strong grades. Even so, there was no small amount of suspicion from her abominations teacher firstly when she turned up late, then when she handed in her homework. She sat at her table quietly getting on with her work as conversations from the students around her drifted through the air, each of them attempting to perfect their abomination brew. A nervous sweat broke out on her brow as she failed to ignore the teacher glance at her many times throughout the lesson and, predictably, she was asked to stay behind after the other students left for lunch break.

"Mrs Blight, I must ask, is something the matter with you?" He asked once the two of them were alone. Amity fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

"I'm sorry sir. I'm just not sleeping very well."

"This can't continue, Amity," he spoke tiredly, holding up the paper she had laboured over in the early hours of the morning. She cringed at the mess, her cheeks beginning to flush with frustration. "If this keeps up, I'll need help from the Beast Keeping track or perhaps the Oracle track to communicate with this paper," he huffed. "You are a skilled witch, but it just doesn't look like you're trying with these. Why have you handed me paper instead of your book?"

"I lost it," she answered quickly. "Sir."

"You lost it, Amity?" The man responded with disappointment. "You mean for the third time?" Amity nodded. He pursed his lips before slowly reaching under his desk to pick up a small, empty workbook like her old one and lifted it in one unstable ark up to her chest level. "You're lucky we don't charge you for these. See that it doesn't happen again."

"Yes sir. Thank you," Amity said quietly, taking the book and quickly turning to leave.

"Oh, and Amity, your ear-"

"I tripped," she cut him off, powerwalking from the classroom.

Fortunately, Boscha was usually pretty calm in school. She'd never act like Amity's boss in front of her friends ­- perhaps out of embarrassment, but if Amity spoke against her in school, she'd be sure to hear about it back at home. So long as there were people around, school made Amity feel safe. Unfortunately, all of Amity's friends hung out with Boscha and Amity didn't feel safe doing the same.

It was alright by her though. Amity could still indulge in her hobbies. She could still make new friends... At some point. She could always sit in a dark corner of the school library and read the last Good Witch Azura book she had in her collection. After all, she hadn't received much by way of gifts or allowance recently. And so she did, and much of the lunch hour passed.

She never would have expected that her pleasant lunch break, protected by the silent promise of the library and the far corner she had tucked herself into such that she would be undetectable unless someone knew where to look, would be disturbed by someone she had never seen before in Hexside.

"Dang," came a disgruntled voice. Amity slammed her book shut and hid it against her chest, darting her eyes up to scan for the intruder she somehow hadn't noticed before by her side. "Someone took my spot."

"O-oh, hey, hi," Amity stuttered, her body frozen place in its comfortable slouched position in the low chair as she met the figure's eyes. Bright hazel-brown eyes, almost dazzlingly bright. Tan skin, short brown hair a wild assortment of colours on her uniform and - strangely rounded ears.

Amity blinked. She'd heard that a human had enrolled at Hexside, but she hadn't believed it until now.

"Sorry," the human mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck. "I guess I'll just go and-"

"Wait!" Amity suddenly cried and quickly sat up, startling the girl and herself, before covering her mouth with her hand. "Sorry, I mean, um..." she stuttered. She didn't mean to push the other girl away. "You're the human, right?" Amity asked.

The colourful girl frowned.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry, I just meant, you know, you probably get that a lot and all," Amity stammered.

"Hey, relax," the girl chuckled, sitting down beside Amity. "It's cool. The name's Luz. Luz Noceda," she offered, extending her hand towards Amity. Amity cleared her throat.

"Amity," she responded, reaching out to nervously shake Luz's hand before hissing as the position had inadvertently strained her shoulder.

"You alright Amity?" Luz asked.

"Yeah, sorry. I just hurt my shoulder a... yesterday."

"Want me to massage it better?" Luz instantly asked, shuffling close to Amity - who recoiled suddenly as Luz's hand met her side, her eyes wide with shock for a split second as a lightning siren blared in her mind. "Crap, sorry," Luz cleared her throat, awkwardly moving further away. "Are-"

"No, it's fine," Amity answered weakly. "That was... An overreaction." There was a short, odd pause.

"Not the affectionate type?" Luz asked. Amity paused. She'd only shared physical contact with one person in the past two years.

"I suppose not," Amity responded quietly.

Luz had the most astonishing glint in her eye. It looked like raw compassion and determination and somehow made everything okay. This was something exciting. It felt like something new. Either that or something very old that Amity had forgotten. Luz was friendly, no strings attached.

"Hey, did you say this was your spot?" Amity asked, the phrase making its way back to the front of her mind.

"Mhm," Luz nodded. "What about it?"

"I've never seen you here once," Amity monotoned.

"Yeah, that's the whole point of the spot," Luz responded. "Duh."

Amity snorted embarrassingly, covering her mouth - a quick, harmless, and thoroughly uncommon slip of joy emanating from her. She was sourly disappointed when the school bells suddenly rang, breaking her from her trance. She'd never normally be caught chatting in the library.

Luz appeared surprised too, judging by how she spun around.

"Well darn," she mumbled. "Time flies when you're having fun, right?" She gleefully exclaimed. Amity had no idea how to respond, so while Luz stood up and disappeared from her sight, she could only leave her jaw hanging uselessly open. She cleared her throat and pulled it shut, shaking her head.

Regrettably, the drop of sunlight in her day had come to an end. Amity blinked again, a small part of her mind wondering if that had really happened at all. Something about her had been enchanting. Shaking her head again, Amity couldn't for a second get Luz's grin out of her head. She let a thin smile come to her lips, however briefly, before standing up and making her way out of the library. It would likely be an encounter she much needed to get her spirits up - Amity dreaded Boscha's foul mood when they returned home if her team didn't win the match. That and whatever her teacher eventually made of Amity's work.

Amity couldn't focus at all on her abominations work all afternoon. While her exhausted state of study overnight had left her straining to keep up, her mind couldn't focus even though she tried. Firstly, for as long as Amity hadn't tried to make new friends, she found Luz amazingly easy to get along with and wanted to meet her again. Secondly, the rest of her day was likely going to be taken up depending on the result of Hexside's Grudgby game. Its players were excused from afternoon lessons and the matches were beginning now.

As the distinct violent cries of the game outside drifted through the taunting open windows, Amity grew tense. She wanted Luz back, not to stand up and meet Boscha outside the changing rooms when school ended like she was always told to after a match.

But it felt like if there was a gap between her and Boscha, then there was a riptide between her world and Luz's. An impassible inlet current that made joy a distant aroma.

Hanging her head, Amity made her way to the changing room where she listened to the boisterous rabble within and waited.


	3. Chapter 3

Amity spun around, startled, as the changing room door flew open and Boscha lumbered into the corridor, leaning her weight on one of her teammate's shoulder. Her grudgby uniform - complete with the chest guard, shoulder and knee pads and completely unnecessary spikes was both torn and, in places, burned. A large cut gleamed on her cheek, bright vicious red, but she had clearly made no attempts to heal it or cover it as though its presence brought her some kind of perverse pleasure.

"Boscha," Amity weakly noted, nodding in her direction. All she had heard from the room was noise. The door had muffled the words that had been spoken, and she couldn't get a sense of the mood within the room from the outside. "Did the match go well?"

Boscha snorted, gesturing with her hand for Amity to come closer. Amity gulped but obliged - at least she looked like she was in a good mood as her second teammate limped out of the room behind them, sparing a nod towards Amity.

"Crushed them," Boscha smiled. It wasn't an uncommon smile - and it certainly didn't look like a happy one. Amity sighed with relief. As they had done many times before, once she was close enough, Boscha slipped off her teammate and Amity huffed when the girl's weight ended up on her shoulders. God, she smelled like burned rubber. "Come on Amity," she said, nodding towards the door.

Amity wordlessly began walking, her eyes scanning the corridor as the other two walked in the opposite direction. Boscha only called her Amity when other people were around. Otherwise, it was Mits, which had devolved from a term of endearment to a spiteful one. It was reserved, as if it was a taboo, to be spoken only in the safety of solitude. Boscha used it so much that Amity began to feel like that was really who she was and that Amity is just what some people called her. That some saw her as a top student but really she was Boscha's plaything.

"And take this," Boscha added, shrugging off her school bag and dropping its weight on top of the shorter girl's shoulders. Amity grit her teeth, quickly moving her arm to alleviate the pressure on her sore shoulder and shift the strap further up to her neck. "Problem, Mits?" Boscha asked dryly, the school now empty and quiet. Amity shook her head, quietly burning her frustration away in her mind. She knew Boscha was aware, and that she didn't care. That was precisely why she had asked.

The walk back home was quiet.

Amity remembered a time where Boscha could lean on her and she could lean on Boscha. Where both would be there for one another. She would look at Boscha and think back, and realise that this bully used to be a much happier than in the present day - and despite everything, Amity would still want her to be happy. She wanted happiness even though Boscha didn't make it easy for her to want happiness for her.

Boscha barely made it possible to consider her a witch that needed good instead of revenge, but clinging onto memories of the past helped Amity. Amity still fought against her broken heart and the pain of one loss after another.

"What?" A snappy voice brought Amity back to reality. With a start, she realised she'd been staring. Boscha did not like bringing up their past.

"Sorry," Amity answered vaguely, locking her eyes onto the door to their house not far in front of them. "Zoned out."

No response from Boscha before they eventually arrived and Amity carefully opened the door.

"How is your limp?" Amity eventually asked. "What part of you got hurt?"

"Shut up, I'm fine," Boscha huffed, leading Amity inside and closing the door. Amity frowned as Boscha stepped away from her, almost knocking her off balance, and quickly sat down on a nearby sofa. "But they put up a good fight before we kicked their shit in."

Amity almost turned her nose up at the vulgarism. She often wondered if Boscha enjoyed the sport only so she could hurt people. Boscha was atrocious, but something in Amity wouldn't let herself hate her.

"C'mere Mits," Boscha ordered, raising her hands above her head and ripping the armour off, along with her shirt. Amity blinked, faltering as her eyes met the toned body belonging to Boscha, who turned slowly to lie face-down on the sofa. She often wished that the girl wasn't as strong as she was. "And gimmie a massage." Amity pursed her lips. She needed to lie down.

"Okay," Amity answered quietly, moving quietly to kneel down beside the sofa and rolling her sleeves up.

Taking a slow and controlled breath, Amity reached down and placed her hands on the back of the girl's shoulders, taking a moment to scout out the surface - of course, her skin was rough and calloused, her muscles well-defined. She clearly took her sport very seriously. She was also very tense, the lean muscles lining her back absolutely ridden with knots. There was no denying a particular charm to it - until Amity's eyes trailed up the shoulders towards the cruel arms that had caused her so much pain.

"You planning on just touching me up?" Boscha grumbled. "Get going, Mits."

"Sorry," Amity quickly responded by default, beginning to gently knead the warm surface beneath her hands. She noted that the girl had casually pulled out her scroll, shamelessly texting as though Amity wasn't even there. It was infuriating, but then again there was very little that Boscha did that wasn't. She felt belittled. Boscha probably realised that. Perhaps it was to remind Amity of her place. Amity certainly wasn't going to do anything about it.

Maybe it was some kind of flex. Some kind of tease. Amity dragged her eyes back down to her hands, carefully applying pressure up and down the centre of Boscha's back to find the knots and work them out. It didn't matter what was on her scroll anyway.

But Amity couldn't help but glance anyway, and her attention was instantly enraptured by the mention of the human. She barely caught a peek of it before the screen flickered in an empty white.

"Damn internet," Boscha huffed, whacking the scroll against the table and huffing again when that didn't fix the problem. "Come on Mits," she complained, turning her head just far enough to glare at the other girl with her eye. "Are you even trying?"

Amity bit her lip and didn't respond.

"You've done this before, you should have figured out how to do it properly," Boscha continued, crossing her arms in front of her and leaning her head on her arms.

"Sorry." It was easy to believe Boscha. A lot of things had seemed to be Amity's fault, after all.

"Useless," Boscha muttered. Amity hung her head.

Though Boscha had made Amity massage her before, it was a slightly strange experience. Her tormentor was lying prone in front of her with her arms out of the way. Amity was behind her, moving her hands across Boscha's body. She could move at her own pace. She could touch where she wanted when she wanted. Considering that usually when they were this close together, Amity could barely move - sometimes Boscha tied her up and she really couldn't - or she was pinned against a wall or the floor, it was a pleasant change of pace.

Amity continued to carefully wring the tissue around Boscha's back, noticing the girl's voice slowly creeping back in as a quiet shivering moan.

"That's better," she whispered, taking a deep breath.

When Boscha had stopped caring so much all that time ago, Amity's opinion of her was best friend in the world and more, so it only had room to decrease - it had begun to fall along with Boscha's kindness as she grew older, but the girl had taken her in and, if anything, Amity owed her. So it didn't end up falling much further.

Sometimes it felt unfair, but Amity knew she didn't deserve any better.

"Lower," Boscha spoke lazily, and Amity obliged, moving her hands slowly down and tracing the slightly indented ridge down the centre of Boscha's back until she reached a slightly softer patch. "There." She stopped at the monosyllabic instruction, continuing her work precisely where her hands had ended up when it was given.

It was sore, tender - Amity was careful not to make a mistake as Boscha closed her eyes and gave a long, low sigh.

"Harder."

Amity obeyed, pressing her palms into the small of Boscha's back. She ignored the sounds coming from the girl, closing her eye and slowly letting her mind wander back to the day.

Luz.

She felt guilty for recoiling when Luz had offered her almost exactly this. She didn't know Luz at all, but she got the feeling she wasn't joking when she offered the massage. She wished that she had accepted now. For some reason, the idea had her blushing.

She had also been a bumbling stuttering mess during their whole conversation, which embarrassed and frustrated her. She could have done better but, all things considered, Luz didn't seem to care. It hadn't been easy to learn - after her parents had taught her proper etiquette and such - that friendship wasn't about perfection. Perhaps that was the first thing she realised in talking to Luz.

Perhaps there was a lot more to be realised. Perhaps speaking to Luz was like bridging a gap across worlds and escaping into somewhere new where things would begin to make sense again.

"Mmm~ Alright," Boscha purred. Amity blinked, the starkly realistic image of Luz disappearing from her mind. "You're done."

Amity nodded, stepping back - and immediately Boscha was on her scroll again. As if she wasn't there. This time she was thankful for it though, as she took the opportunity to quietly leave the room and sneak up the stairs to her bedroom.

For the first time that day, her stomach growled its protest. Amity hadn't been eating properly, but she usually ate at school as, inevitably, Boscha did not like Amity stealing her snacks.

She didn't have a scroll or crystal ball or any kind of communication device, and found herself longing for one more than ever before - she could hardly have a familiar deliver a written letter to Luz if she didn't know where she lived.

She wanted to ask how Luz was doing. Apologise for recoiling. Thank her for being friendly. Tell her how much of a positive influence she had been on the day. Perhaps ask for that massage now? The side of Amity's lip curled into a slight grin and her cheeks began to glow again. That would be silly.

She found herself just lying in her bed - her door was closed and she was facing the wall with her back to a room, curled up tightly under her cover, her pillow held close to her chest. Some time later, as the horizon began to fade into the tranquil purple of dusk, Amity fell asleep like that.

  
And she was back in her manor. She could feel the sun on her skin and hear her siblings bickering in the distance. She stood in front of the main entrance with her school bag and knew that this house didn't belong to her family any more and that her mother was gone.

But she was stood in front of Amity, who had so much to say and so many questions. Amity had had this dream many times before. She would step forwards to embrace her mother, but the woman would zoom out, as if shrinking from her reality. She had a smile on her face and arms outstretched, promising a loving mother's embrace, but however hard Amity ran towards her, she would be far out of reach.

"Mother!" She screamed, bursting into the entrance hall in a cold sweat, sprinting after the image of her mother but soon it had completely disappeared and the world was cold and still.

"Mother!" She cried again, only for a torrential downpour to begin. The roof was gone above her, and the walls had collapsed - cold, bitter rain stung at her skin and caused a torrent to flow over her feet. The ground was gone and she fell - down into an endless abyss where she could not see, where she held her breath and the tides battered her frail limp body around under the water. All that was left was an ocean of all things gone, which consumed each corner of Amity's heart, stretching down into infinity and up beyond the sky.

All that was left was coldness, and the constant rain that took everything away from her.


	4. Chapter 4

Not a lot of things seemed absolute in Amity's life. The things she depended on could vanish, the people who talked to her could disappear. An unfortunate happening could be a slip of bad luck, a bad omen or the beginning of something tragic. She was trapped and she had to grow up quickly, but she didn't know how.

She did not think highly of herself. She often thought she deserved everything she had, as she didn't realise what was happening to their parents and do something about it. Maybe it was her fault that her siblings were without parents too.

Amity sighed softly. She had fallen asleep in the early evening and had woken up when everything was still and quiet. It was easiest to keep her eyes closed, so she did, but still saw her older brother and sister. She didn't know where they were, but she hoped they were happy with every last modicum of will she had left. That would only be fair. They had always been happy. She laid in her bed for hours, the sun rising so slowly she barely noticed it until her alarm blared, jolting her back awake to prepare for school.

During school, her focus was demanded once again by the human. It appeared she was embarrassingly infatuated with Luz, glancing out of the window to see her when she heard chatter, or scanning all the classrooms she walked past.

That was why her ears piqued when she heard the word human drifting down the corridor. Amity paused, registering the chattering voices around the corner. She placed her back against the wall and slid suspiciously closer, taking the opportunity to listen in.

Human... Half a Witch... Weirdo... Pieces of paper...

Amity thinned her eyes, straining to pick our more than the odd few words.

"I heard her talking about Amity earlier."

Amity froze.

"Yeah, me too. Said she met her in the library."

Then she heard Boscha's voice.

"Oh, that's interesting."

Somehow her tone sent a chill down Amity's spine. She already knew Boscha wanted to do something cruel.

"Don't know why a human thinks she can just turn up here and learn magic with real witches."

"No, me neither."

Boscha spoke again.

"Maybe we could give her a little welcome present, help her stay a little longer. Stay specifically here," she suggested with amusement before Amity heard a hollow metal tapping sound, and her heart skipped a beat.

That was a locker.

They were going to trap Luz.

Amity had to warn her.

"For real? You could get in so much trouble for that."

"Nah, don't worry about it. We could always get someone else to do the deed."

_No._

It was immediately obvious to Amity what Boscha was saying. It was as if the girl was speaking directly to her.

Amity gulped, turning around to try to escape from the situation as quietly as possible.

"Oh?" Boscha asked, a fleeting chuckle escaping her lips. "Where you going, Amity?"

Her breath hitched. Her blood ran cold. Amity looked over her shoulder and saw Boscha leaning against the opposite corner, watching her smugly.

"Hey. Boscha," Amity gulped. Three eyes cut into her as two more pairs turned the corner to see her. "I was just going to my next lesson. It starts in a couple of minutes."

"Maybe it does," Boscha responded, standing up from the wall and stepping forwards. Amity stepped back. "But I can't help but suspect you heard our conversation. And you..." She continued, stepping right up to Amity, bringing her arm up and over Amity's shoulders, turning to face the others. Amity wanted to throw it off. "You could do it for us."

"Amity?" The others asked, giggling. "She'd never. She's not like that."

"Oh, she would," Boscha shot them down in a low tone, turning slowly to look at Amity, whose body was held uncomfortably close to hers, trembling. "Wouldn't you?" It wasn't a challenge or a dare. It was an instruction.

"B-Boscha, why would you want to do that?" Amity pleaded. "What's she done?"

There was a slight shift in Boscha's complexion, her jaw jutted in disapproval. Amity wanted to hide.

"She hangs out with half a witch, Amity. She's the human. She's literally a human."

"So what?" Amity begged. "I _did_ talk to her, she was nice!"

"You are going to do it, Mits."

Amity stopped again, her hairs standing on end. The other girls frowned in confusion.

"Boscha?" They asked.

"Am I right?" Boscha challenged Amity.

"You..." She whispered, fighting tears back. Each passing millisecond of silence made it worse. "You're right."

"Cool," Boscha answered, brightening up. "Do it at lunch break," she added, before leaning into towards Amity and whispering in her ear. "Or by the Titan, I will hurt you."

And with that, the three girls walked away, leaving Amity desolate in the corridor. Suddenly her next lesson didn't matter at all. She wanted to find Luz and explain what was happening, or beg her to pretend Amity had locked her up. But Boshca would know. She always somehow knew. It was like she was doing this more to torment Amity than Luz.

Amity gripped the edges of her skirt hard, her knuckles turning white. Perhaps if she didn't find Luz then she couldn't be blamed. Maybe if Luz's friends stopped her then there was nothing she could do about it. Maybe if she could have a teacher walk past her at the time, the teacher could drag her away to detention and save Luz.

She frantically eyed the corridor. She was late for her lesson. She spun on her heels and took off at a jog towards her classroom, though not a single thought about abominations filled her mind through her trip, or even during her lesson. Sat in her seat in the classroom, she wondered if she could have the teacher keep her in the classroom throughout lunchtime. Maybe she could go outside and accidentally become injured, and she'd have to go to the medical wing, then Boscha couldn't blame her for not doing what she was told.

The end of the lesson couldn't come too slowly, and she almost panicked when the bell rang, signifying lunch break. Amity was a bundle of frayed nerves, standing up on weak legs with her palms on the table as the other students spilled out of the room. Nothing came to mind that Boscha wouldn't see through. It felt like the girl had cameras on her at all times.

All that was left was to pray for a miracle.

And running into Luz by a row of lockers in a completely empty corridor was far from a miracle.

"Amity!" Luz grinned, noticing her approach. Amity almost swore. She almost turned and ran. "You always look so nervous whenever I see you," Luz pouted. "What's up?"

Amity couldn't respond. Each muscle shook.

"Ha, yeah," she weakly responded, turning to look away from Luz. She'd been wanting to find her all day. She would have normally thought it was lucky to run straight into her, but all the things she wanted to say disappeared from her mouth. The girl's adorable cheeky smile didn't make Amity happy when it was that she was going to ruin.

"Amity?" Luz asked, stepping slightly closer. Amity noticed that she carefully kept a comfortable distance between them, but she wanted nothing more than to step forwards and hold her. Or stay far away from her. She shouldn't get to be near Luz.

"Yeah, hey," Amity bleated, cradling her head in her hands and taking slow steps forwards until she bumped into the lockers. She should just not do it. It would be so easy to fall at Luz's feet and explain.

"Hey, come on, you're worrying me," Luz's smile faded. She didn't look away from Amity but Amity looked everywhere apart from her. But she did look at Luz, one more time, and regretted it. Soft, loving eyes, wide with concern. Precious. She couldn't do it. "Are you in there? Do I need to take you to the hospital?" Luz blinked.

She couldn't do it, but she remembered Boscha's words. She could practically feel the rope burn on her wrists and the painful cramping in her hands when the circulation would be cut off. She could see Boscha leaning against the kitchen counter and staring at her, one hand resting casually on the knife rack. She could feel the belt again - on her ears, on her neck, on the insides of her legs. She felt her throat drying from yelling and crying, blinded by cloudy eyes or even fabric. She heard Boscha laughing at her pleads.

"Amity!" Luz cried. Amity opened her eyes, now stained with tears. There was an open locker right next to Luz.

In one movement, she grabbed Luz and shoved her roughly back - she stumbled but caught herself against the back wall of the locker with a shocked expression on her face as Amity slammed the door shut, twisting the lock closed and turned to run without a second thought.

"Amity, what the hell? Hey, let me out!" Luz shouted. Amity covered her ears. "What's wrong with you?" But the corridor was behind her - the school too. Amity wept profusely, paying no attention to the path she took. She tripped and stumbled and smudged soil on her face, but she was far from the road so she stayed there, curling up tightly on the dirt path and pleading her mind to stop playing Luz's shouting on repeat.

With trembling hands, she wished she had the courage to go back and undo everything. She wished she had never met Luz, or just gone against Boscha's will. She would take whatever the girl threw at her if she didn't have to hear Luz's cries.

At some point, the sun had set. She'd be in trouble if she kept Boscha waiting, so she stood up slowly, light-headed, and returned to their house. Her face was completely blank as she tried not to think about anything.

Boscha was in the living room and immediately noticed Amity on the pathway. The door opened wide before Amity reached it.

"Geez, you look like crap."

Amity didn't respond. Something had broken. Boscha covered her mouth with a hand but snorted anyway.

"You actually did it. What the hell?" She asked, beginning to laugh.

Amity didn't respond.

"You're nasty," Boscha spat, getting her breathing under control. She met Amity's eyes. "Nasty."

Then she was gone. She had closed the door.

Amity stepped forwards again but didn't want to enter the house. A rain droplet fell on her head, but she didn't notice, curling up on the ground next to the door, trying to fight against her welling emotions.

Soon it was raining hard, and Amity had lost the fight. As the water soaked everything for as far as she could see, she wept quietly and shivered, hiding her face in her knees. She tried to focus on the cold water biting her neck. She was evil. She didn't deserve to be one of the millions of raindrops as she had wished - the rain washed the dirt and grime from the road but she only made things worse. The rain made things clean but it only made her cold.

A lot wasn't clear to her but, since moving in with Boscha, the only absolute in Amity's life had been that everything was her fault.


	5. Chapter 5

Amity was brought to her senses when a light from the top floor of the house switched off. Probably Boscha's bedroom. The rain had soaked through her clothes and skin. She knew she was stropping like a child and had to get out of it. Her eyes were dry and exhausted and stung with every blink as she opened the door and entered the house.

If she used the shower she might wake up Boscha, which wouldn't be good. Instead, she took off all of her clothes and dropped them in the laundry basket, then wrapped herself in towels from the bathroom. She ignored her hunger this time only because she didn't want to indulge herself. She had never been so sick at her own actions.

As water from her hair seeped onto her pillow, she pulled the covers tightly over herself once again, vowing to never let Luz see her again. She never wanted to show up at school again but she couldn't let this ruin her. Perhaps she would prepare a gift or service for Luz to apologise.

When she closed her eyes, all she saw was cute scruffy brown hair and the slight tinge on Luz's cheeks. An infatuating hot sea of hazel she wished she could lose herself in. But she had thrown it all away.

Why did Boscha want this? Why did it benefit anyone?

Though Amity was tired, sleep did not wrap her in its releasing embrace as soon as she expected and she found herself lying awake for a long time. She didn't know when Boscha fell asleep. The girl didn't snore, so she sometimes wondered if it was possible that Boscha ever laid awake too. She wondered if what she did haunted her nights. If she paid attention to the calming soundscape of the night and heard sobbing from Amity's room.

She dreaded school the next day, and the sooner she fell asleep, the sooner that would come - though it wasn't something she had control over and, at some point, her movements had come to a stop and her mind was enveloped in black.

School the next day was not fun.

Firstly, she had woken up with one of the most severe illnesses she had felt in a very long time. Her vision was hazy, her ears ringing and her sense of smell completely gone. There was a painful congested feeling in her head, her skin confused as to whether it was too hot or too cold but always one of them. Her muscles were feeble and struggled to carry her. This did not stop her from attending her classes.

Secondly, while she normally prayed around every corner that she would not run into Boscha, there were two people on this list now. If she was normally unnerved, then now she was straight-up paranoid. Facing Boscha was humiliating enough, but running into Luz - to whom Amity was her Boscha - would be painful.

It was after lunch break and before their last lesson that the first thing she needed to avoid happened.

"Mits!" Amity flinched. Somehow Boscha had found her alone, again. She looked to her side to see the girl approaching. "You're so frail today. Are you ill?" Amity blinked. She didn't like this - sometimes Boscha acted normal around her, but she could never trust it.

"Maybe-" she began but was interrupted by a cough. "Maybe a little."

"Damn. Wonder how that happened," Boscha quipped. Amity held her mouth shut. Boscha had a point. "You really did a number on Luz. Did you see her today?" Boscha gleefully exclaimed. "She's been so quiet."

"No," Amity answered, clenching her jaw. That stung.

"How do you think she felt?" Boscha asked Amity. "I mean when you locked the door and didn't come back." Amity shrank into her shoulders. Was Boscha punishing her for doing what she was told? "Tell me."

Amity looked up at Boscha. She wanted an answer.

"I..." Amity began, resisting the urge to cry out and ask why Boscha was doing this. Boscha knew Amity would have taken Luz's place if she had the choice. "I think she was scared. And maybe betrayed."

"And?" Boscha asked. Amity wished someone else could turn down this corridor but it was completely desolate.

"And embarrassed," Amity hazarded. "Like she'd been made a fool of."

"That's it," Boscha mocked, placing her arm over Amity's shoulders again. It forced Amity closer and made her walk in tow with Boshca. "Did she deserve it?" Boscha asked slyly.

"No," Amity answered quietly, a tear rolling from her eye. "She didn't."

She didn't realise what was happening until it was too late. It was even the same corridor.

A slight laugh from beside her warned Amity that something was wrong. She turned to her right, where Boshca was shifting her weight onto her right leg. Time slowed. Amity gasped and reached out, but Boscha held her in place before shoving her to the left with her body, where she found herself surrounded by metal walls. Amity pressed her arms against the walls to her side to stop herself from collapsing, but a forth wall had appeared in front of her, and a clicking sound filled the box.

"Boscha?" She asked, her eyes wide. Her voice filled the box and only bounced back to fill her own ears. Four tiny horizontal slits let a trace of light in, but it hardly helped - she couldn't see the corridor outside or even a flash of distinct purple hair. "Boscha? Hey, are you still there?" Amity begged, but received no response but fading footsteps.

Amity stood up again but hit her head on the top of the locker, forcing her to bend her knees, placing both hands on the door and pushed, but it didn't yield at all.

"Boshca, come back!" She shouted. "Please!"

Still no response. A door shut at the end of the corridor. Then there was silence. The last lesson of the day was beginning and all the students were in their classrooms. Amity reached for her wand at her side but the moment she tried to cast a spell, numbness shot through her mind and her hand cramped up, dropping the wand which fizzled hopelessly. Boscha had actually gone to the effort of setting up a sealing circle around the locker.

"B... Boscha?" Amity whimpered, but the girl was long gone. She pushed the door again, whacking her palms against it but it was surprisingly sturdy.

Now she knew what Luz felt when she covered her ears and ran from her pleads. Her heart pounded in her chest. Crying out for help would be pitifully embarrassing, but no one had been in the corridor for a long time anyway.

Perhaps this was justice. Maybe this was making things right. Maybe it would help. She slid down to the bottom of the locker, where all the bruising on her back suddenly flared up - the locker was large, but only just large enough for a small witch to fit inside. Her knees pressed against her chest and she struggled to suck air in. She was crying again. This didn't help at all.

Nothing but guilt ran through her mind for over an hour. She couldn't sleep in this uncomfortable position but she didn't have any books or paper on her, and couldn't cast any spells. She was well and truly confined to the chiding of her own mind.

She perked up when the final bell rang, and chatter began to fill the corridor anyway. This was her chance. All she had to do was call out. The bustle of dozens of girls chatting to one another filled her ears, but her lips grew weak and her arms wouldn't move. Amity bent further down and hid her head under her hands while the commotion slowly grew quieter and quieter. Boscha would come back for her, right?

Then all the commotion had stopped - the school was empty once again. Each second no one came, dread crept further to the front of her mind. She was beginning to panic. Boscha wouldn't come back. Boscha was torturing her.

But then relief washed through her body as a pair of quiet footsteps met her ears. She shuffled slightly, pushing herself up against the wall to gaze through the slits and see if Boscha had come back.

But it wasn't Boshca.

It was Luz.

Amity's hand moved up to meet her mouth, silencing whatever gasp she almost made as she slid back down to the bottom of the locker. It just made sense that this would happen.

"Hey, is someone here?"

Amity's eyes shot open again. This couldn't be happening. The bumping noise she had made had clearly alerted the human.

"Hello?" Luz asked. "Helloooo?" She repeated in a sing-song voice, approaching the lockers. With nothing to hide herself under, Amity pulled her head further down as if it would protect her from Luz's judgement. She'd never been more ashamed in her life.

"Oh," Luz's voice arrived. It was a lot closer. Amity looked up to see the same hazel brown eyes that had haunted her sleep staring down at her through the slits. "Amity," she spoke softly. Now Luz saw her. She kept her mouth shut. "What happened?"

Well now that Luz had seen her it was too late to hide, and sulking wouldn't help anyone. She had a feeling that Boscha wouldn't come back anyway.

"I..." Amity swallowed. She might as well beg for forgiveness and hope for the best. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Luz. I deserve this."

"Did someone lock you in here?" Luz asked, her voice tinged with a slight edge. Of course she had the right to be angry at her. Amity nodded.

"Please..." Amity whispered, screwing her eyes shut and almost hoping Luz didn't hear her. "Please let me out." There was a pause.

"Who did this?" Luz's voice asked from lower down as if she was kneeling. Amity didn't answer. "Amity, please tell me," Luz's voice continued. Amity loved that voice. She loved when Luz said her name. "Hey, are you really okay in there? You looked pretty upset yesterday too."

"What do you mean, I looked upset?" Amity laughed. "I put you in here, and you're worried if I'm upset?"

"Let me help you, Amity. Please." Amity froze, her heart lodged in her throat. She fought against the pleasant feeling, rejecting it, but warmth flowed through her and there was nothing she could do about it.

Boscha would give her hell if she talked. No one would believe her anyway, but even if they did, they wouldn't do anything about it - but considering that Luz was outside the locker and Amity was stuck inside until tomorrow unless Luz helped her, her best choice was to accept her help.

"It was..." Amity bleated. "Boscha did it."

"Boscha," Luz repeated with venom.

"She made me do it yesterday," Amity explained. "She would have hurt me if I didn't. I'm sorry, Luz, I-I shouldn't have-"

"She what?" Luz cut her off, outraged.

"I... I live with Boscha, Luz," Amity spoke. It was the first time she was going to tell this to anyone. It was terrifying but unbelievably liberating. "She thinks she's the boss of me. If I don't do what she says, she attacks me. She uses me for entertainment."

There was a long silence from outside the locker apart from the occasional clicking sound that she had been hearing since Luz knelt down.

"That bitch," Luz eventually answered.

"So..." Amity continued. "Please let me out. I beg you. I'll never go near you again. I'll do your homework, or bring you-"

"Amity," Luz cut her off in a tone so soft it almost melted her. Amity shut her mouth. "I don't need your explanation and I certainly don't need you to stay away from me." She paused. Amity's heart was racing almost painfully quickly. "I don't know how to get rid of the magic seal on this locker but I've been flicking through every combination on this lock since I realised someone was in here. Just give me a few minutes and I'll get you out, okay?"

Amity blinked. She didn't know what to say. Suddenly she felt like laughing and crying at the same time, and as pins and needles barrelled through her nerves, something comforting moved with them.

"Luz," she whimpered, her body rocked by a sob.

"Sshh, just relax. I've got you."

Amity loved her. She loved Luz with every fibre of her being. She so desperately needed the door to fall open so she could crawl out of the locker and hold onto her. Covering her face with her hands, she was quiet for a long time.

"Thank you," she eventually whispered. Luz paused briefly.

"You don't deserve to be locked in here, Amity."

"But-" She tried to argue but stopped the instant she heard Luz's voice again.

"You were forced to, right?" Amity hung her head. Luz was right. "Willow walked past me not long after you left yesterday," she explained. "And she let me out. No one deserves this."

Luz didn't know the half of it, but the sentiment hit hard anyway. It was the first time she'd been told that.

Another short quietness passed between the two until there was a louder click and a slight sliding sound. Amity's eyes darted up to the door.

"Got it," Luz remarked, and the door finally fell open.

Amity covered her damp eyes with a hand for a moment, where she saw Luz backing away from the locker before kneeling down as she had been seconds ago. Shuddering, Amity slowly turned her body to the side, letting her legs out of the locker and stretching them out.

She paused, meeting Luz's eyes again. Somehow the human still put up with her, and she was able to stare deeply into her hazel eyes again, as she had fantasised about all night. It was almost surreal - her and Luz sat a metre apart in the empty school corridor. Luz was studying her intently, waiting to see what she'd do.

Amity crawled slowly out of the locker, leaning her back against the closed door next to it and breathed slowly, before bringing her knees back to her chest. It was bright, even though the evening was coming along.

When Amity didn't move, she noticed Luz sit up from her knees and move slowly closer, until they were within arm's reach. Amity stared intently, not speaking a word, as Luz tentatively raised an arm and moved it towards her. She met Amity's eye as if checking for permission and Amity stared eagerly back, longing for the promised touch as Luz's hand hovered over her shoulder.

Then Luz let her hand fall down, her thumb brushing down Amity's tense shoulder with a feather touch, all the while not breaking eye contact. The touch sent a tingle down her arm. She never wanted Luz to let go. She hadn't been touched lovingly in years.

Feeling a tear come to her eye, Amity reached up and placed her hand on top of Luz's, holding it firmly against her shoulder and screwing her eyes shut again.

"Are you feeling okay now?" Luz asked.

Amity let out an undignified squeak, leaning forwards and desperately wrapping both arms around Luz, pulling the two of them closer. Though startled, Luz didn't hesitate to do the same. Amity breathed out slowly, treasuring the embrace she found herself in. Luz smelled sweet, like fresh vanilla, and her hair was invitingly soft as its tips danced across the back of Amity's neck.

She could feel her mother's arms around her again. Amity squeezed hard with her arms, refusing to slip away. She felt a hand trace up her back and up to the back of her head, holding her against the shoulder she leaned on and gently stroking through her hair. It was divine. Amity didn't want to stop, and it felt like hours before she did.

Luz waited patiently before Amity lifted her head to meet her eyes.

"Oh, Amity," Luz said almost sadly, lifting an arm to delicately wipe the tears from Amity's eyes. "Come on. Let's go and talk somewhere warmer, okay?"


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay," Amity answered, nodding her head slightly. For once, she didn't care what Boscha would think. Boscha had trapped her inside a locker, she couldn't complain if Amity got home late.

With that satisfying thought, she allowed herself to detach from Luz and move shakily to her feet.

"Hey," Luz cried, lunging forward as Amity felt her legs suddenly give out and she slipped backwards. Luz had caught her, and now her weight was on the other girl.

"S-sorry," Amity mumbled but Luz only shook her head.

"What's the matter? Feeling light-headed?" Luz asked. Amity swallowed, any semblance of a response forming in her brain turning to mush before it got to her mouth, her core doing somersaults in response to Luz's unrelenting eye contact. "Ohh, you're very unwell," Luz nodded in recognition before Amity could say anything, her palm placed on the witch's forehead. "All the more reason to get somewhere warm, huh?"

"Right," Amity answered weakly, feeling like she was being lifted and carried in more ways than one. She took a breath and stepped forwards again, too embarrassed to lean on Luz despite how easy it was. Luz watched carefully.

"Do you have any places in mind?" Luz eventually asked. "I mean we could sit down in the cafeteria, I found a way to snag snacks from the back without anyone noticing." Amity smiled slightly.

"Probably nothing there at this time of day," she responded. "Besides, it's probably locked."

"Coffeeshop then?" Luz beamed, turning for the exit.

"Actually," Amity spoke. "I know a quiet spot in the public library."

"In the public library?" Luz parroted.

"Well... more like my personal hangout," Amity answered. "I'll show you what I mean."

"You have a personal hangout?" Luz repeated again, her eyes positively sparkling with excitement. Each tiny grin of hers chipped away at Amity's composure.

"Yeah, do you-" Amity paused, her cheeks flushing red as if she had accidentally almost asked a delicate question. "Do you want me to show you?"

"Hell yeah!" Luz responded, hopping with excitement. So, with a smile, Amity set off down the corridor. After easily unlocking the main door with her wand, Amity stepped outside of the building and took a long, cold breath.

Though the sun was still high in the sky and the shadows were not yet long, an oppressive chill hung in the air. Still, resisting the odd urge to look back to her prison, Amity could only be grateful she was out here instead of in there.

"Kinda chilly, huh?" Luz broke her out of her trance.

"Y-yeah, sorry," Amity mumbled, quickly continuing towards the library. She didn't notice Luz's contemplative frown as they walked, but fortunately the library was close and Amity knew the way well.

Mere minutes later, the two stepped into the silent library. Occasionally a murmur could be heard from the desk or the turning of pages around them, but it did little to disturb the compelling studious atmosphere. A flick of discomfort made its way to Amity's eyes as she walked through the aisles - she would often come here to do Boscha's work, spending long nights pleading her brain to understand for fear of punishment, but she would never take the girl's work into her hideout. It was her sanctuary, and she only did what she wanted to in there. Today, it was reserved for Luz.

"Never got along with libraries," Luz spoke under her breath. "It can be so hard to sit still sometimes. I'm pretty sure every librarian back where I'm from hates me." Amity blinked. Luz was impossible to hate.

"It's here," Amity whispered, coming to a stop in the romance section. She looked over her shoulder to check if anyone was watching, and fortunately no one was."

"Huh? We're here to read romance?" Luz raised an eyebrow.

"No," Amity responded with a touch of smugness. "We're here for this," she explained, pulling on a specific book and watching as the fake shelf in front of them backed into the wall and slid to the side.

Luz stared in fascination at the modest, cosy room Amity had made for herself. With a sloped wooden roof above them and shamelessly surrounded in bookshelves, a solitary chair sat in front of a table with large cushions lining the corners and an array of shining stars hung from the ceiling. Amity's eyes would often stray to them, and feel nothing but a fresh tug of wistfulness - the room was an imitation, albeit a lot smaller, of her old bedroom. Her past fascination with astronomy was preserved here in her haven, where she and her memories would always be safe. Despite the constant feeling that Boscha's eyes were on her, she felt content that Boscha would never find her here.

"Amity..." Luz whispered, her voice rich with amazement as she stepped forwards slowly and the door slid closed behind them, effectively sealing out the libraries slight whispers of sound. "This place is awesome."

Amity couldn't help smiling again, raising her hand up to the back of her neck. She still felt unwell and wanted to sit down, but being able to uncurl her legs was definitely good. With Luz's eyes darting about the ceiling and her collection of books, Amity sat herself carefully down in a corner on the cushions before her attention was quickly drawn by a joyous gasp from the human.

"You have the Good Witch Azura volumes one through four? They have those in the Boiling Isles?" Luz's eyes were wide. Amity froze, her cheeks beginning to burn with embarrassment. "I knew that's what I saw you reading in the library!"

"Y-you saw that?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Luz answered while grinning widely, suddenly sat beside Amity.

Though something in Amity's mind still shook from the proximity, another part was jumping for joy. Neither had calmed down since the moment Luz had found her. Besides, she noticed that Luz was still keeping a careful distance between the two, just because of her one foolish overreaction when they first met in the school library.

"Thank you, Luz," Amity sighed, her hands fiddling with her sleeves. Luz shrugged.

"Wouldn't you have done the same for me?" She asked. "Well, ehm, that is, you know," she trailed off awkwardly as her brain caught up. Amity nodded hard.

"You don't know how happy I am that it was you," Amity spoke quietly.

Luz blinked, her smile faltering to bewilderment.

"Any half-decent human being - er, witch, would have let you out."

"Yes but-" Amity stuttered, suddenly clamping her jaw shut before she said something embarrassing. What could she even say? That she had been thinking about her all night?

"Oh, you were expecting Boscha, weren't you?" Luz asked, her eyes thinning. Amity gulped. She had been.

There was a long pause.

"Why do you put up with her?" Luz asked. Amity looked up and met her eyes again. "How long have you been staying with her?"

"No, Luz," Amity answered weakly. "I _live_ with her. My family..." Her throat tightened and she paused, the soft glow from the stars above her lighting old images in her mind. Her mother would be so happy whenever she got a good grade. Her siblings made fun of her but they loved her, and they would sometimes let her play games with them. She could barely even remember what her father looked like.

"Amity?" Luz eventually asked. Amity startled, looking up to Luz and realised she was crying again.

"Sorry," Amity whispered, screwing her eyes closed and re-opening them. "My father died while I was young, and my mother two years ago. My siblings are with relatives and we don't own the old manor anymore."

Luz's eyes had grown wide with realisation.

"Amity, I'm so sorry," she hazarded, her eyes cast to the ground. Amity, with no idea how to respond, shrugged.

"I come here to remember them," Amity said. The phrase rang in her head. "Seeing these stars can hurt, but I need it sometimes. It feels right, if that makes sense. It's... Cathartic." Luz was watching, hanging on her every word. Amity then realised what she'd been saying. "Sorry," she mumbled again, averting her eyes. "I shouldn't be dumping this all on you. I mean, we just met and all, now I've gone and dragged you-"

"It's okay, Amity," Luz spoke. The voice was the gentlest she'd ever heard but it washed over her like an avalanche. "If you need to talk, I'm listening."

"I..." Amity gulped. "I need..." But her voice was gone, and she could only shake her head again, turning to pleadingly meet Luz's eyes and extending shaky arms. Thankfully Luz understood, and quickly shuffled towards Amity, whose arms quickly wrapped around Luz's back before Luz reciprocated and Amity felt herself pulled in. Their chests met each other and Amity buried her head in Luz's neck, trying to stop sobbing. She normally didn't get this sentimental. Why was she making such a mess of herself now?

"Oh, Amity..." Luz sighed, clutching the quaking girl. For all she had been holding onto herself, Amity was coming completely undone now, turning her head from side to side and feeling her hot tears on Luz's neck.

"L-Luz," Amity croaked, rocking slightly as her fingers dug into Luz's back. "I'm scared, Luz," she whimpered. "Everything is going to watse... I don't want to be like this anymore. I want my family back. I want to go to sleep and be eight years old again, but, but everything's gone wrong..." Luz didn't speak, she only held on. Her arms were a feather touch that didn't agitate Amity's bruises yet her presence was a rock for the witch. "I want Boscha to be gentle like she used to be. I want to have friends and free time again. I want to know how Edric and Emira are doing. I want to know if my parents would be proud of me," she wept, desperately tugging at Luz.

Nothing else mattered anymore. Amity was unaware of her unflattering sobs or the itch of her rustling uniform. A deep surge of emotion had struck her, both painful and mystifying, and her mind was shot numb with grief. She could only be glad she was with Luz, not Boscha.

"I'm sorry," Luz whispered. The torrent of raindrops on Amity's skin was cold, but Luz was warm enough for it to slow. "I'm sorry, Amity."

"Luz, I don't understand," Amity mumbled into Luz's shoulder. "It's not fair."

"No," Luz responded slowly. "It's not." Luz's thumb was stroking up and down Amity's shoulder. It was a meagre gesture but it was a merciful distraction. Amity's life had been a battle against grief but, just for a moment, winning the fight wasn't important.

"I can't bring your family back," Luz eventually said. "But I can take care of you when you need them the most."

"Luz, why-" Amity choked out. "Why are you helping me?"

Luz sighed, then absently clicked her teeth together a few times.

"No one deserves what you've got," she answered eventually. "And this was just how my ma taught me to be. She doesn't always approve of how I am, but..." She paused for a moment, another flash of regretful recognition in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Amity. I can't say I relate to you, but I haven't seen my ma in a longer time than I thought it would be. So I feel for you, ya know?"

"You do?" Amity parroted. Luz nodded her head.

"Totally. It's hard to see you eating lunch on your own in an empty classroom and not feel for you."

"You-" Amity stammered, her head jolting back to stare at Luz with bright red cheeks. "You mean you-"

"I mean today, after what happened yesterday and before Boscha locked you in the locker," Luz explained. "I saw you in the abominations classroom. I wanted to go in to talk to you but I was still angry at you and I was with some friends at the time, so I decided not to." There was a short pause as neither said anything. "I'm not angry at you now I know what happened, I promise," Luz reassured her.

"Luz, I... I don't know what to say..." Amity stumbled through her words.

"Whatever you say, just don't assume this is your fault, alright?" Luz asked.

"Huh?" Amity frowned.

"You apologise too much," Luz commented. "You don't owe me anything for this, alright? Apart from hanging out with me later on, of course."

"I..." Amity mumbled. "Isn't Willow going to hate me now? I mean, did you tell her that I..."

"Yeah, I told her," Luz answered. "But I'll explain when I next see her. Don't worry about it."

Amity nodded nervously.

"Do you have a watch?" She asked, suddenly twitching with anticipation, realising how long they'd been here. "If I come home too late I'll be in trouble again."

"For real?" Luz huffed. "Bitch put you in a locker and complains if you don't come home on time?"

"She knew I'd have to get help," Amity mumbled. "Or that someone would help me, at least-"

"You shouldn't be justifying her," Luz huffed, pulling a dark rectangular scroll-like screen from her pocket. "It's almost six o'clock."

"Six?" Amity repeated, her eyes widening. "God, I have to get back quickly," she huffed, turning to the closed door behind them but not making a move. She sighed deeply. "I don't wanna go, Luz."

"It'll be okay, Amity," Luz tried to comfort her. "And we can talk again, alright?"

Amity pursed her lips.

"Promise?"

"Promise." She paused. "Hey, I can walk you home too, if you want?"

Amity blinked, that infuriatingly embarrassing red hue making its way back to her cheeks as her mind was instantly struck with scenes of chivalry and heroism from the girl in front of her.

"Ehm, yeah, I mean... Yes... Please," Amity mumbled, deliberately facing away.

Their exit into the main library was uneventful, albeit Amity's sore legs from sitting so snugly for so long, and the pleading lack of warmth against her back. She gulped down her dread as the sun was low on the horizon when she and Luz stepped out of the building but kept on walking, content with safety at her side. She would give anything to slip her hand into Luz's but was far too afraid to do so.

"Amity, you look worried," Luz spoke when they came to a stop. "Is this it?"

"You know why I'm worried," Amity responded, glancing at the house in front of them. "And yes, it is."

Luz pursed her lips, following Amitiy's eyes - It wasn't a manor but it was certainly large. The sky was an ominous shade of purple and, silhouetted against the setting sun, it did not seem inviting. No matter thoughts Amity had in her mind before the front of the house filled her vision, it always brought back years of being pushed down.

"Hey, Amity," Luz said from behind her. Amity turned around, where Luz was smiling softly. "Whatever happens in there, don't give up. I'll be waiting for you at school."

Amity smiled back.

"I'll be counting on it."


	7. Chapter 7

It had all started with an odd text out of nowhere.

_It was on Tuesday, after school, following a terrible boiling storm the night before that had stretched into the morning. The scenery had not yet recovered, the pavements craggy and lamp posts slick and misshapen. A curious mist hung in the air, humid and foreboding._

_Amity hadn't been in school the day before and while Boscha was concerned as the girl had an almost perfect attendance record, no one was perfect so she didn't give any thought to the cloud of mistrust that had been hanging over her head all day. The sky was dark by the time the message arrived, from Amity:_

_**\- Can we talk** _

_Boscha stared_ _at the message for at least a minute, a cold sweat forming on her brow. Her fourteen-year-old friend was new to Penstagram but she was never this cryptic. After all the moments of weakness Amity had shared with her in the past, confiding her fears with Boscha for her mother's life, this did nothing but agitate the spike of dread in her heart._

_When Boscha realised Amity was waiting for her to respond, she quickly typed out her response._

_**\- What's up, Mits?** _

_The response was instant._

_**\- I need to come over** _

_Boscha bit her lip, her palm clammy as it stumbled over the keys._

_**\- That's fine, see you soon?** _

_There was no response._

_**\- Mits?** _

_She frantically typed._

_"Okay," Boscha whispered to herself, gulping and standing up to rush for the front door. She didn't hesitate to throw open the door and dart into the acrid sting of the air, ignoring the complaints of her mother behind her. Each second her concern grew - the dark and omnipresent tug at the back of her mind had grown into a roaring grip of terror as her pacing turned into jogging, which turned into sprinting._

_Her lungs were burning, tears stinging at her eyes and her house far behind her as she took a familiar side street on the route to Amity's manor._

_That's when she spotted Amity. Pale and shellshocked. Despondent and dishevelled. Boscha froze, her heart gripped tightly with pain as Amity stared weakly at her with red eyes. Her clothes looked crumpled and messy as though she'd been drenched the night before and hadn't changed out of them since._

_"M - Am-" Boscha stammered, but couldn't find any words. She quickly shook herself back into reality and approached her friend. "Amity?" When Boscha reached Amity, who fell into her arms, it felt more like she was carrying her than hugging her. Amity just shook her head, and Boscha didn't ask anything else. She already knew what had happened. Boscha held her tightly, swearing she'd never let anyone or anything ever hurt her again._

_The contact seemed to wake Amity up, who gradually moved from bleak and expressionless to loudly screaming and crying. Boscha didn't know what was worse but this was probably more healthy. Minutes passed and, though Boscha's skin stung, she had no doubt Amity had been outside in the haze of the storm for much longer than her - and she wouldn't be anywhere else in the world in this moment._

_"Boscha," Amity bleated. "Ed - Edric and Emira already have plans to move out and live with our aunt... But I can't leave. I-I have to stay here, at Hexside. With Lilith." She spoke. "With you."_

  
Boscha lazily set herself down in the main living area, her scowl not leaving her face for one second. Not only had Amity's work for her a few days ago only got her a C, but the teacher didn't even look disappointed, as though it was just expected of her not to get top grades. He berated her in front of the class, saying that her answers looked like she hadn't paid any attention at all in class. Sure she was in her right to find Amity afterwards and give her some hassle for it.

The only problem was that school ended several hours ago and she hadn't come back - and Boscha would be in a world of trouble if a teacher found her. Or maybe something could go wrong with the locker or the sealing circle and something could happen...

Boscha huffed, thrusting her hand into her pocket and grabbing her scroll, forcibly bringing it up in front of her as if the object was to blame, before sending a text to her friend Skara who was probably finishing her extra-curricular bard track work about now.

**\- Skara. I need you to go open locker 56.**

"Please respond," she mumbled.

**\- How come? If you left something behind I'm not going to your house to deliver it again**

**\- Just do it**

**\- Kinda busy atm. Gimmie like 20 mins**

Boscha slammed her fist against the table.

**\- Important. Do it now.**

She stared daggers into her scroll as the profile on the other end displayed typing, then not, then typing again.

**\- Geez, fine. Just ask nicely in the future**

Boscha sighed in relief, leaning her head back.

  
_Amity had ended up staying the night around Boscha's house after that. Boscha remembered making the girl shower then giving her a change of clothes before sitting her down on the sofa in their living room and bringing warm drinks in. The inside of the house was dry and amiable, and the fire Boscha was tending to in the hearth made a pleasant difference to the ambience._

_Amity kept moving between distraught and completely disconnected but Boscha sat beside her the whole time, fetching extra blankets and holding her hand underneath them. Amity's grip was tight, almost painful, but she endured it. It wasn't long at all before she was deeply asleep. She probably hadn't slept much, if at all, the night before. For fear of waking her up, Boscha could only shrug and wait until sleep eventually took her._

_When she woke up, Boscha took a moment to figure out what had happened. Sure she was comfortable - more so than she had been in years, everything was warm and soft - but the instant she saw Amity's face it was impossible to be restful. Amity was still asleep, but her face looked contorted with pain. And it seemed as though she had moved closer to Boscha in the night - their limbs were now such an entangled mess it would surely be impossible to stand without waking her._

_Boscha's eyes flicked to the clock - it was a Wednesday morning and school had started more than an hour ago, but she didn't care. Her alarm had probably gone off and given up a long time ago upstairs._

_Her scroll was on the table beside her, so she reached for it to keep herself occupied - she had always struggled to stay still for long, so she ended up fidgeting with her sleeve with her vacant hand, scrolling through Penstagram with her other. She had never felt this protective in her life. Everything had always been about rising to the top, being in charge and crushing those who oppose you either with fear or with strength. Soft cuddles were for weaklings and you only helped others for favours - but A_ _mity had flipped her completely upside down, punching a hole in her gut yet clogging her heart with something unfamiliar._

_Boscha sighed and put her scroll down, instead moving her arm to wrap around Amity's back. That felt natural. And comfortable._

_Amity stirred in her sleep, furrowing her brow before hazily opening her eyes. Boscha felt Amity's grip on her torso tighten._

_"Mum?"_

_Oh right._

_Boscha grimaced as the hopeful glint in Amity's eyes died. She could only shake her head._

_"I'm sorry."_

_Amity blinked several times, her eyes falling to their awkward embrace._

_"Right," she spoke quietly._

_It was a school day but Amity barely even brought it up, which Boscha didn't mind playing along with. It was a slow start - Amity was very needy for affection and Boscha wasn't used to it but she tried her hardest. They ended up deciding that Amity would, at least for a short time, live in Boscha's house. Boscha remembered her mother looking at Amity with a thin veil of abhorrence - she had always despised the Blights, as had Boscha until she met Amity - but she still allowed it, provided Boscha "kept her under control"._

_With that settled, the pair made their way back up to her old manor to collect her possessions and move them back down to new house. Boscha felt a pang of remorse as she walked through its dark, empty halls and into the bedroom that she, Amity and their friends had hung out so many times in, performing Moonlight Conjurings and whatnot. She couldn't imagine how Amity felt as they went through the furniture, the decorations, the awards and the wands. The task shouldn't have been left to the orphan fourteen-year-old and her friend but no one else was there anymore._

_Boscha had considered trying to turn it into something exciting, setting up in a new room and redesigning - it was a large house, and Boscha decided they could give Amity the guest room that was immediately beside Boscha's - but thought against it. Amity didn't need positivity thrown against her._

_"So..." Boscha spoke soothingly later that evening, sitting down beside Amity's bed. Amity was sat on the edge of the bed, gripping its edge as her eyes wandered. The room wasn't much like her old one, but she couldn't complain. At least it had all her clothes in the wardrobe. "How are you feeling?"_

_Amity sighed._

_"This is weird," she answered weakly. Boscha nodded, looking around._

_"I'm sorry," Boscha answered. "I know it'll take some adjusting."_

_There was a long pause. The sun had long since set and both were exhausted - they'd deal with the consequences of school whenever Amity was ready to._

_"Thank you," Amity whispered._

_Boscha smiled, tracing her thumb across the back of Amity's hand before standing up._

_"Just knock on the wall if you need anything," she said. "I'll come running."_

_Amity nodded, and Boscha slowly turned to leave. Both girls were in their pyjamas, ready to go to sleep, but Boscha felt a tug on her sleeve before she left the room and turned to see Amity with her eyes screwed to the ground, reaching out for her._

_"Don't leave."_

_And Boscha's heart exploded. For the first time ever, she found herself fighting a blush off her cheeks._

_"Alright Amity," she soothed, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Go to sleep. I'll stay here while you do."_

_"Okay," Amity whispered, turning her body and slowly lowering herself down. Boscha watched as Amity took hold of her arm, holding onto it like a lifeline as she curled up under the sheets. She was glad Amity was so quick to obey and close her eyes, because she could do nothing to stop the blush from spreading._

_A part of her didn't want to leave but she wouldn't be able to fall asleep with her arm in this position. Once she was sure that Amity was asleep, she slowly pulled her arm away and retreated to her own bedroom._

  
Boscha had paced up the stairs and paused, lingering in the frame to Amity's room. She closed the door a lot but Boscha pushed it open, scanning it. It had barely changed at all in the past two years.

There had been a time, over the first few weeks of Amity's stay, where she would wake up from a nightmare in the middle of every night, and Boscha would quickly hear her and rush to her side. Boscha would still hear her from time to time two years later. Boscha didn't sleep well anymore.

She pulled her scroll from her pocket again, her eyes irritably dancing across its screen. Skara hadn't sent her any new messages. Presumably she'd found Amity and let her out. Hopefully nothing had gone wrong, otherwise she would surely have messaged Boscha. Amity would be on her way back now, then Boscha could be rid of all her irritating worries and relax.

  
_Weeks later, Amity seemed more comfortable. She certainly hadn't got over it, she was still just a child, but she didn't need Boscha to take care of her as much, much as Boscha wanted to. She still wasn't happy, which hurt Boscha, but she couldn't blame that on someone whose last parent had just died._

_The spark of infatuation each girl had had for one another hadn't faded in the slightest, and they had started to grow much closer as friends at school. People had started grouping them together - Boscha and Amity here, Boscha and Amity there._

_One day, Boscha had invited their friends around the house for a party. She and Amity were sat side-by-side on the edge of her bed in her room with Skara, Amelia and Cat grouped around to form a circle with them. They had deviously decided to play truth or dare to unwind together after exams, though it mostly revolved around fretting about crushes and remarkably tame dares. Weird foods were eaten and embarrassing messages sent on Penstagram, but whenever it was Amity's turn to ask Boscha, Boscha would always say dare and her toes would curl with anticipation of what Amity would say. Whenever it was Boscha's turn to ask Amity, a cacophony of much less tame ideas sprung to mind, the hint of power and promise of something exciting with Amity spurring her mind to function completely differently._

_She was disappointed with the time came for the girls' parents to come and pick them up. All of a sudden the house was, quiet, but the excitement still lingered. After Boscha and Amity saw them out, they quietly sat back down on the bed again and were plunged into an awkward silence. Amity looked at Boscha and Boscha looked at her. Her heart was pumping impossibly hard in her chest and she didn't know why._

  
Boscha stepped out of Amity's room and stared at her own open door. Her room had changed a lot since then. Now it was all about trophies and fashion. The bed they had sat on was right there. No such parties had happened recently - at least none that Amity joined. Boscha would always be angry at her afterwards for ruining the fun.

She stepped up to her own room and, scroll still in her hand, glanced down at it again. Still no response from Skara. She took a deep breath.

  
_"Hey, Amity," Boscha whispered. The silence was tense. Their eyes met and wouldn't look anywhere else._

_"Yeah?" Amity nervously responded._

_"Truth or dare?"_

_Amity blinked several times._

_"Dare."_

_"I dare you to kiss the next cute person you see," Boscha responded smugly, expecting Amity to explode, red-faced, and claim that was absurd, and it would be too embarrassing if she had to do it in a crowded space._

_Amity did begin to blush, but only slightly. With no sudden reaction, she just gulped and stayed as she was for several seconds before turning her body towards Boscha._

  
Boscha was pacing back and forth down the corridor by the bedrooms, her eyes flicking aggressively between her bedroom and the windows beside her, where the pathway up to the house was. She huffed, pacing heavily down the stairs until she was stood by the front door.

  
_Amity tentatively lifted a hand and placed it on Boscha's shoulder - and while they'd shared more physical contact that this before, something about it was electrifying. Boscha was taken in and froze as the other girl shuffled closer to her, weaving her pale fingers through Boscha's._

_"Amity?" She whispered, but Amity was completely hypnotised, leaning slowly in._

  
Bosha turned on her heels, trying to keep her rapid breathing under control, walking briskly from the main entrance to the living area and bumping her knuckles against the walls as she walked past them.

  
_Somehow she hadn't expected this, but she still longed for it. When Amity closed her eyes, Boscha did too and leaned in, Amity's hot breath against her mouth._

  
Boscha raised a finger to ghost against her lips, releasing a silent sigh. She closed her eyes, lulled by the memory and the thrill of her racing thoughts - Amity had very soft lips. She remembered the feeling vividly, almost as if it was still there after the years that had passed. The heat that had built in her that she couldn't begin to comprehend, let alone externalise or handle still throbbed, just as the buried feelings tugging at her aching heart hadn't given her any closure since Amity moved in.

  
Just as Boshca melted into the memory of their kiss for the hundredth time that day, her eyes darted open as she heard the front door open.


	8. Chapter 8

After all was said and done, Amity turned back to her house and, like a sweet distant aroma, Luz had disappeared all too suddenly. Amity could only sigh when she found herself suddenly colder. It was easy to say things would be okay when she and Luz were together, but it didn't make it much easier to open the front door on her own and step inside. But as Luz had reasoned, Boscha had locked her in a locker. How could this be Amity's fault?

The thought provided a sliver of relief as Amity took a deep, controlled breath and grabbed the handle and slowly pushed the door open.

Just as soon as the latch's familiar click reached Amity's ears, she flinched as voracious footsteps bounded through the corridor. Boscha had been waiting for her.

"There you are!" Boscha yelled, swinging around from the door to the living room and marching up to Amity. "Titan, she took her time."

Amity stood still, unsure of what was happening, her jaw clamped shut and her eyes wide. She was ready to step into the warmth of the house but didn't dare move a muscle as a pause came over Boscha's frustration, a curious frown on her face.

"Skara did let you out, right?"

Amity blinked. Of course Boscha hadn't expected Luz to let her out. Knowing her, Boscha probably wanted Luz to hate her now. She couldn't let Boscha know that the two had been talking.

"Yeah," Amity answered weakly, clutching her forearm with one hand and mentally promising she'd hunt Skara down first thing the next morning and beg her to play along.

"That airhead," Boscha huffed, thinning her eyes.

Amity gulped, waiting for Boscha to let her in, before the girl jabbed her hand into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"This is what you get," Boscha spat, tossing it at Amity's feet and turning away. "For getting me a C. We both know you can do better."

When Boscha stood still, Amity realised she was waiting and quickly knelt down to pick up the paper in front of her. When she unfolded it, she immediately recognised the imbuement work she'd written out several days ago. So that's what this was about. She had Luz locked up for fun but Amity as a punishment. It was just something else that was Amity's own fault.

"Sorry," Amity answered quietly. "I'll do better next time."

"Good," Boscha concluded, stepping forwards and leaving, her footsteps soon fading up the stairs while Amity knelt in the door frame, her eyes glazed over. The word echoed in Amity's mind - resounding, powerful, yet simple. It was easy to believe Boscha. To fall back and do what she was told. That's what made Amity good. It's all she had to do.

As of the moment though, she didn't have any work to do for Boscha and she was overloaded with abominations track catch-up (not to mention the lesson she had missed that afternoon in the locker). Tired, sick or bruised, Amity would close her eyes and take a deep breath before letting the back of her mind take control, trudging quietly up the stairs and making her way up to the desk in her bedroom. She didn't have anything to spend her free time on anyway so there was no sense in delaying getting back to work. Boscha was actually working her harder than her own parents had, and now that Amity had a limited expertise in potions, it sometimes felt as though she was meant to be thankful.

She did realise that Boscha was being unfair. It was clear that the girl should treat Amity better and do her own fucking homework. Amity knew that Boscha cared for her, somewhere, in some way, whether she could even admit it to herself or not. It was hard not to feel the same connection they used to in the rare moments where the jock would be sensitive - at least by her standards. Like the times she'd aggressively defend Amity if someone else tried to pick on her, or the rare times she'd come and pick Amity up on her broom from far-off lectures or competitions when it was late and dark as Amity didn't have a broom of her own. Though she was only doing it because her mum forced her to take responsibility of Amity and she would grumble and scowl the whole way, sometimes Amitiy's heart would leap and burn, rekindled but confused, passionately longing but cold and monochrome and distant. Though she tried to push it away, she couldn't help the young excited tingle in her core when she wrapped her arms around the taller girl's waist and they flew home. And that was only when she had the energy to try. It was all gone in an instant though, whenever she did something wrong.

And this was one of those times.

The tiny plastic clock on her bedside table was ticking incessantly, each stray wistful thought wasting precious time as a handful of assignments lay in front of her. She'd ventured to dive in deep in Hexside all those years ago, taking on whatever extra credit she could find. How it had come back to bite her. Just another one of her mistakes and, as Boscha seemed to enjoy reminding her so much, she made a lot of them.

Even now, her pen had barely touched the paper. Several more assignments, barely any evening left. She'd likely but up late at night again, but at least this time they weren't all due the next day. Often distracted by the familiar hoots of the owls in the forestry, Amity shook her head and drilled her eyes into the paper.

Her last essay had been on advanced commands and now she was approaching the end of chapter 6 in her textbook. A very long-winded and unnecessary discussion on the ethics of abominations and the theoretical side of things, underlined by the foundation that ultimately you didn't need to worry about it. There would have been a time when even that would have struck Amity as fascinating but most certainly not today, when her head slipped from its cradle in her hands more often than it usually would with her elbows leaning on the desk, the feverish burning chill in her muscles that had driven her insane inside the locker not easing up at all.

Again the owls' hooting broke the silence. They had certainly been more present this evening. They also sounded closer, almost as though Amity would be able to see them for once if she opened the window, as opposed to them just being one of the many sounds of the night. She had spent plenty of time searching the darkness for them before, but they had always eluded her.

She knew that she had gone back downstairs for a cup of water at some point as she found the empty cup by her side. It did little alleviate her irritated nerves though at least her mouth wasn't dry.

And still the owls hooted on. It was ridiculous, and Amity was starting to grow worried. Had she irritated them in some way? Did she disturb them too much in the night? They weren't exactly causing a racket but it was almost as though there was a single owl as close as it could get to her just continuing to make noise.

Amity gulped, struggling through the end of her assignments. This was the only one of the tasks in front of her that was due the day after, and while each sound from outside pricked at her ears and demanded she stood up to investigate, she managed to get to the last line and complete the essay before the mysterious sound met her ears again.

Amity forcefully placed her pen against the desk and leaned back, covering her face with her palms and sighing deeply before wiping them down and blinking several times as movement caught her eye in the window, adding to her confusion.

She paused, staring for a moment, trying to discern whether or not she had just caught a refraction of a street lamp or if someone was running around outside.

Again the owl hooted. This time, a slight tapping on the window startled Amity who, in such a dreary state of irritated concern, gasped and flinched. She spun her head over her shoulder to glare at her door automatically, pleading that the sound hadn't disturbed Boscha - Boscha wanted her quiet - and she sighed in relief as no reprimands followed. She was left only to cautiously approach the window, her footsteps softened, her wand gripped tightly in her hand. The Boiling Isles was not a safe place, after all.

That's when she saw it, stopping in her tracks. Startlingly wide, beady eyes stared straight at her through the window. As she had suspected, the fluffy yet graceful form of a deep brown night owl perched easily on her shallow windowsill, waiting patiently. Amity locked eyes with it, and no more hoots came. It seemed almost as if it had been trying to get her attention.

"Hello?" Amity cautioned quietly, stepping towards it.

It gave another soft hoot, lifting up a leg. Amity thinned her eyes, leaning forwards - she had only just noticed that it was clutching onto something with its foot.

Amity paused, clicking her tongue in the back of her mouth a few times in deliberation as curiosity overcame her and she moved up to the window, placing a hand against it.

"What is that?" Amity asked, mesmerised.

Again, just a relaxed hoot as the animal watched her expectantly.

"What?" Amity asked again with a hint of amusement. Now she was talking to an owl. "You want me to open the window?"

Another hoot.

"Oh come on," Amity eyed its feet again. "If you came inside and made a mess I'll get in a lot of trouble. Besides, all the heat will escape and Boscha will probably realise something's going on." The owl didn't respond. Amity sighed, leaning her head in her hands again. "But you probably already knew that, didn't you."

The owl hooted, this time slightly softer.

"What is this, what am I doing," Amity complained, turning to her side and glancing at the door again. Somehow even this felt wrong. Like she was on the verge of incurring Boscha's wrath again, yet at the same time she was reminded that this was all the conversation she had. "I really am talking to a..." She began, but trailed off to a pause when the owl's eyes continued to bear into hers.

Amity leaned forwards slowly until her forehead was against the glass, scanning its eyes carefully.

"You're... Listening to me?" Amity asked, an idea suddenly occurring to her. Maybe she hadn't just been talking to a dumb animal.

The owl hooted.

"Are you a familiar?" Amity pondered, her hand subconsciously trailing up the window to grip the handles to open it.

The owl hooted, raising its leg again to show Amity what it was holding - and from up close it looked like a scroll of sorts. A thin page of rolled-up parchment. Amity wasted no more time in opening the window, silently praying for the peace of the night to have no disturbances. She watched in amazement as the owl stepped forwards and lifted the scroll so that Amity could easily reach through and pick it up.

Keeping a careful eye on the owl, Amity unfolded the scroll.

_ Heya Amity, it's me (Luz) _

_ Thought I'd send you a little letter since you showed me where you live and I didn't catch your number when we talked. Written letters aren't really my style but it feels like more of a witch thing to do so it's cool, right? I'm learning something new every day, even if my teacher is so senile she has us rooting through trash slug remains for the right kind of ink. Anyway. Is everything going okay over there? _

_ (Write your response below and give the letter back to Owlbert!) _

_ \- Luz _

A wide smile came to Amity's face. It only faltered slightly when she read the trash slug part and considered what she was holding, though she let out a quiet chuckle at the end.

"Owlbert," she repeated with a snort, turning back to the owl, whose eyes almost seemed to thin with an irritated expression. "Alright, alright, sorry," Amity quickly added, reaching back to her desk with one arm to grab a pen, holding the note against the inner windowsill with the other.

She knelt down by the window, letting the tip of the pen absently hop across the page for a few minutes before writing her response, the strong smell of ink filling her nostrils and the familiar scratching sound of scribing filling her room.

_ Luz _

_ You'll find I'm certainly more comfortable writing letters, although we won't need to concern ourselves over the proper _

Amity stopped herself before writing the word  _ etiquette _ , tensing her jaw and rolling the pen between fingers for a few moments before erasing her response with a quick tap of her wand. She suddenly wasn't so sure how she was supposed to respond. She'd come across so awkwardly if she tried to adopt Luz's writing style, having never written a letter informally before, yet it might be even worse if her text came across as too posh.

"More comfortable writing letters," Amity repeated to herself, annoyed at the ease with which a blush began to spread to her cheeks. "Yeah right."

_ Luz, _

_ I certainly didn't expect this letter but it was a most welcome surprise. _

She paused, her palm sweaty with nervousness. Amity shook her head. She knew Luz wasn't going to be judging her on this but somehow it terrified her. She had to write the perfect response.

_ I'm afraid I don't have a scroll to communicate with you, so we may have to rely on Owlbert for the time being, if that's alright. _

She nodded.

_ I take it that, as a human, magic and witching fascinate you? I can see why you would be so excited to enrol at Hexside, but as a human? You astonish me. _

Amity again paused before removing the last line she wrote.

_ Your teacher certainly sounds interesting - I assume that she is not a member of the Hexside staff? _

Amity had to stop herself from going on her usual spiel about the importance of fascination with learning.

_ I recall you saying that you haven't seen your own mother in some time? Are you staying with other family? I would love to meet them some _

Amity stopped in her tracks, again, and quickly removed her last line, sighing in frustration and embarrassment. She shouldn't be asking Luz about that kind of thing already. She was lucky Luz was kind enough to listen to her talk about her own personal life so soon. Owlbert did not look impressed as Amity clicked her tongue again, staring at the paper.

_ I wonder if I could meet this teacher some day. If I may ask, which coven is she in? You already know from my uniform that I'm on the abominations track but I know a lot about potions and I haven't heard of using trash slug remains as ink before. Anyway, Boscha let me in without too much of a fuss but I think she sent Skara to let me out of the locker some time after you did, and I acted as though she let me out. Boscha would be furious if she found out that we had made up, so I am going to find Skara first thing tomorrow. Please play along. _

Amity grimaced at the thought, but the excitement quickly built up again as she skim-read her own writing over and over again.

_ Thank you again for this letter. I would love to stay in contact _

She paused.

_ as much as possible in the future. _

_ Yours sincerely _

Amity erased the last line.

_ Yours faithfully _

And erased it again.

_ Yours sincerely, _

She wrote, the blush growing on her cheeks.

_ Amity. _

She must have read it over at least a dozen times as, when she curled it up and handed it carefully back to Owlbert, it had already passed midnight.

"Thanks," she whispered in acknowledgement as the owl quickly took off.

When Amity closed the window and laid back in her bed to rest her eyes, she was instantly asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a couple of weeks overdue and not much happens in this chapter. Got a little lost narratively (though I know what happens as you get closer to the ending) and I was very busy over Christmas. I look forwards to updating this more in future

When Amity woke up, tears stung at her eyes and her heart was pounding, almost painfully so. She had woken up from her recurring nightmare again. Her old mansion, her siblings, her mother. Then the rain. The desperateness for clarity, the need to breathe while the world crushed her and smothered her. It was a familiar experience.

She gulped slowly, her throat hot and sore. She still hadn't recovered from her illness from the day before, and yet again hadn't slept enough that night. A quick glance to her clock showed that it was about half an hour before her alarm was due to go off. The sky had taken the typical deep orange-purple tint of the morning if not still a little dark, the street clearly visible through the window.

Amity sighed silently, tugging the sheets closer to herself. She needed to slow down. It was a Friday though, and Boscha always slept in on the weekends which meant Amity would also be able to. ??Just one more day of school.

One more day of school, Amity reminded herself, where she could talk to Luz.

She quickly perked up again as her eyes rested on the window, remembering why she had stayed up so late in the first place. Luz had sent her a letter. Her heart tingled with joy. It didn't stop the wave of nausea as she stood up or the cold ache in her muscles but it certainly made throwing the sheets off herself a lot easier. It almost made her wish for no weekend, but she may be able to meet up with Luz over the next two days and quickly perished the thought.

Of course, she'd have to come up with something different to tell Boscha to excuse her absence.

With that in mind, a second thought came to Amity. Skara.

It was a good thing she woke up early today as she needed to get to the girl before Boscha did.

After falling asleep so suddenly the night before, Amity noticed she had slept in her uniform again. Another bad habit that was becoming more and more frequent recently. The grey haze of tiredness had seeped through her brain and muscles though it was more of a constant state at this point than a moment of weakness.

"Come on," Amity whispered to herself, turning her alarm off, scanning her room and quickly picking up everything she needed. "Today will be good." She told herself, pushing her door deftly open and creeping down the stairs, alert to the tiniest creaks they made as she passed over them. Though Boscha wouldn't care if she was up early (provided Amity didn't disturb her sleep), Amity couldn't help but be a little jumpy in her hurry to find Skara before Boscha did. It was as though she'd done something wrong and suddenly she was awaiting judgement, like Boscha would be more aggressive than usual.

Bleak, dusty light filtered through the kitchen windows as Amity adjusted her uniform, grabbing a snack from the cupboard before hurrying towards the door to push it open and step outside.

It seemed to have been getting colder recently, even though the Isles' cold season was still far ahead. Amity's eyes were drawn to the edge of the forest behind her, close to her bedroom window, where she would often hear the night owls - she found that now, she curiously thought they might make themselves visible to her but she saw nothing.

"Okay, okay focus," she whispered, closing the door behind her. "Find Skara."

She did know where Skara lived but she wasn't sure if she would be welcome if she turned up so early in the morning. Fortunately the girl was often early to school as she was keen to get to the bard track facilities to practise, so she wouldn't have to wait long. Standing right outside her door would have seemed conspicuous at best, so Amity picked a corner on the edge of the street by an old brick fence to sit down on, leaning her head back and sighing quietly.

There was occasional bustle on the street as the taxis trundled by and muffled, once mortifying but now merely ambient breathy noises drifted over the air. The cold uneven surface behind her head wasn't pleasant but it had never seemed so alluring as, just for a second, she leaned her head back and let her eyes close again.

There was a touch of wind on her skin, a falling feather dancing down her arm and onto the ground beside her. Distant footsteps and murmuring, dry dust and vines creeping down her back and the suddenly heavy pack on her shoulders weighing her down all merged into a soft tug for Amity to relax.

The world grew quieter, her throat hotter but her clammy skin colder. The world was spinning around her, and suddenly she wasn't sure that she would be able to stand up even if she chose to. Vague, muted noises hit her ears where she couldn't even discern what they were and she blinked several times, just realising that it didn't make any difference.

"...Hey, hey can you hear me?"

Amity jolted, snapping her eyes open bringing her arms up in front of her, but realising how weak she was when a savage chill ran down her spine, her arms barely staying in their position before dropping down in front of her.

"Wh..." She mumbled, startlingly unaware of where she was. "Sorry - what?"

"Amity are you okay?" Came the same voice, this time more worried.

Amity gulped, focusing hard before the world came back into view. Dark skin, wide, caring eyes - hexside uniform.

"Luz?"

"Luz?" The girl responded with confusion, leaning further forwards. "Hey, come on, wake up, you're scaring me," she said, placing her hands on Amity's shoulders. Amity thinned her eyes - bright red sleeves, grey eyes, pointed ears and long pinkish-grey hair.

"Skara," she corrected herself, gulping when everything came back into focus. There was a prominent ringing in her ears and she was cold. Very cold. Bad headache.

"What are you doing here?" Skara asked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine-" Amity automatically responded. "I mean... Tired."

"You're not well," Skara shook her head, reaching a hand down towards Amity which she gratefully took, realising Skara took most of the weight as she shakily stood up.

"Why do I find you in an alley by my house so early in the morning, unable to walk or speak?" Skara asked quietly, trying to keep her voice firm. Amity hadn't registered how distressed Skara looked before they met eyes.

"I need to talk to you," Amity answered.

"To me?" Skara answered slowly. "Wait, hold on, tell me what happened here. You're in a terrible state, you could have... This isn't..."

"I'm fine," Amity repeated. "I was sleepy."

"You're very ill," Skara declared. "What in the Titan's name are you doing out of bed?"

"I had to find you," Amity continued again. "It's about Boscha."

Skara's expression quickly shifted to something cold.

"She was certainly acting weird yesterday," she mused. "It's serious, isn't it?" She asked darkly. "Is she not taking care of you over there?"

"Did she ask you to check a locker?" Amity asked.

"Yeah, she texted me. She sounded desperate."

Amity blinked.

"Desperate?"

"It was important, at least," Skara continued. "Wanted me to open a specific locker but it was empty. I did notice a sealing circle above it though-"

"I was inside there," Amity cut her off.

There was a long pause. Amity waited uncomfortably as Skara's brow slowly thinned to a frown.

"What?" She asked.

"I need you to pretend... That I was stuck inside that locker, and when you opened it you were letting me out."

"I... What?" Skara asked again. "Did Boscha-"

"Don't ask," Amity shook her head. "Please."

"...Boscha trapped you inside there, didn't-"

"Please," Amity repeated hoarsely, holding onto Skara and screwing her eyes shut.

"Wh... What do I say? What do I do now?" Skara pleaded, raising her palms to the sky. "You want me to keep quiet about all of this?"

"I - I can't-"

"Talk to me," Skara asked softly. "I know we don't hang out much but we trust each other, right? How long has Boscha-"

"I'm begging you," Amity sobbed. "If you tell anyone, she will hurt me."

Amity waited desperately, watching Skara's fists slowly curl and uncurl, her eyes shot with venom Amity had never seen in her before.

"I can't believe I hung out with her," Skara hissed. Amity hung her head. "But worry about that later. You, Amity, need to go back to sleep. You looked half dead when I found you. Anyone could have robbed you blind, or abducted you or even... Or..."

"Thanks, but I need to go to lessons," Amity stated simply. "Illness was never a reason to skip class, you know?"

"You're going to collapse," Skara huffed.

"I'll get a break tomorrow, right?"

Skara's mouth was a thin line of concentration as her eyes fell to the ground before she eventually sighed.

"It's your choice." Amity smiled slightly. "But I can't carry you around all day."

"Sorry," Amity quickly apologised, moving to support her own weight. As the two of them set off towards Hexside, both faced the ground as their minds raced. They hadn't been that close before, but Skara had always been friendly. Perhaps Boscha was the only reason that the two of them didn't hang out more, but the instant they started talking, Amity had dropped all of her emotional baggage on her, and ruined her friendship with Boscha. She should have been more careful in what she said. She'd broken something else.

She didn't want people to hate Boscha.

"So, Luz..." Skara spoke. "You're friends with the human, huh?"

"Oh, uhm, yeah. She's actually really nice. Like, way too nice. And enthusiastic, and mischievous but not in a bad way, and she'll listen to you talk and did you know how much humans hug? She hugs a lot. She's really good..." Amity stopped herself, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Like. I mean. She's an awesome friend."

"Huh," Skara eventually responded. "I never talked to her, but I guess that's just because... Boscha always hated her."

"I didn't mean for you to start hating Boshca," Amity slowly responded. "You don't have to stop being friends-"

"You want me to keep hanging out with her?" Skara thinned her eyes. "There had better be a lot more to this than I know, because by the titan she does not look good right now."

"N-no, I mean..." Amity stammered. "It's your choice, just... I don't hate her." Skara blinked, then brought her eyes guiltily back to the path. The school was ahead of them. "I don't hate her," Amity repeated, clenching her jaw. "I don't."

"Alright, Amity," Skara said once they reached the main entrance. No one else was around. "You take care of yourself, okay?"

"I'll try," Amity answered, watching weakly as the girl nodded and hesitantly turned to leave.

A few seconds passed and she sighed with relief, still chilly between the school's grey bricks walls. With the main worry of the day out of her mind, she walked tiredly towards her classroom where she would study until morning registration.

She didn't end up seeing Luz that day until lunch break, unfortunately. It made sense, considering Amity was in the abominations track - even though the human seemed to be in every track in the school, somehow.

"And what, huh, human?"

Amity perked up, stopping dead in the corridor as Boscha's confrontational voice bounced around the corner. She saw that some distance away, Boscha had blocked Luz's path.

"That doesn't make you a witch," Boscha turned her nose up. Amity's blood boiled.

"Just get away from me Boscha," Luz frowned. "What did I do to you?"

"Oh please, it's not me," the bully spat. "Do you ever wonder what went wrong? A human at Hexside? Piss off the wrong guy and you're gonna get flattened. And to make matters worse, your best friend is half-a-witch?" She laughed. Luz curled her fists. She looked like she was ready to fight.

"Yeah, Willow is a good friend," Luz answered slowly. "Maybe try being friendly yourself and you'll start making some."

Amity gulped as a dark glint shone in Boscha's eye. The look where, if she'd said what Luz had said, she was about to get hell for it. She anxiously stepped forwards, not waiting to see what was going to happen, and both pairs of eyes came to rest on her.

"Take Amity for example," Boscha turned back to Luz. "I heard about you and the locker," she smirked. "What's that, you didn't know any spells to unlock doors, or blast them open?" It took every speck of Amity's self-control to stay put at Boscha's condescending tone - somehow when she used it on Luz, it was so much worse.

Amity met Luz's eyes, giving her a silent pleading gaze. To her relief, Luz turned around and stormed off past Boscha, down the corridor.

"Sheesh," Boscha huffed, giving Amity a sideways glance as she began to stroll in the opposite direction. "She does  _ not  _ like you."

Amity bit her tongue.

"No," she responded barely audibly, making sure Boscha was well out of view before rushing forwards to try to catch up with Luz, suddenly worried she'd somehow upset the girl. Maybe just because Boscha had said so.

"Hey, Luz?" She called in a daring half-whisper once she reached a junction. Crushing steel burdens of worry melted quickly off her shoulders as there Luz was, a short distance away, spinning happily around.

"Amity," she responded, quickly doubling back and jogging back to the witch. "Good to see you!"

"H-hey, so, sorry about her," Amity quickly mumbled, glancing over her shoulder. "I know she can be like that...

"Don't worry about it, I can handle it," Luz sighed. Amity let her eyes fall to the ground in the short pause. "I'm fine, Amity. Promise."

"Alright... So did you get my letter?" She asked.

"Yeah," Luz nodded, a grin coming to her lips. "Owlbert says it took you a lot of tries to write what you did," she chuckled. "Kept erasing it and trying again." Amity froze, her mouth hanging slightly open.

"...That snitch," Amity whispered. Luz laughed. It was such a pure sound. "Oh, hey, about your teacher," Amity perked up, meeting Luz's eyes again.

"Ohh, about her..." Luz trailed off, suddenly looking everywhere apart from Amity. "You wanted to know what coven she was in, right?"

"Mhm," Amity nodded curiously. "If it's no trouble, I mean."

"No it's alright... She's just, kind of... Not in any coven."

Amity blinked.

"So she's still in school?" She hazarded.

"No, she just never... joined one..." Luz spoke under her breath.

"What? You know that's highly illegal, right?" Amity stuttered. "The emperor wants every witch in a coven-"

"Would it help if I told you she was in the bad girl coven?" Luz asked. Amity thinned her eyes in confusion.

"That's not a real coven."

"Hey, I'm in the bad girl coven too," Luz pouted. "We've got cool T-shirts."

Amity snorted, but immediately froze and looked over her shoulder again. She'd been too loud. Luz clearly noticed.

"Come on Amity, you shouldn't have to hide your friendships. You can't pretend to be on bad terms with me just for Boscha's pride."

"No Luz, it's for my sake," Amity answered darkly. "We're not doing it for Boscha... You've got to do it so I don't get hurt, okay?"

"You've got so much on her... You could ruin her," Luz seethed.

"I'm too scared," Amity answered simply, her voice barely a whisper. She shook her head. "She could hurt you too. She's getting worse." Luz didn't say anything. "Just... Let's just keep our friendship from Boscha, at least until we figure something out. I'm begging you."

"What about Skara?" Luz asked.

"I've talked to her. She... Knows."

"Fine," Luz eventually huffed. "I won't do anything you're not comfortable with."

"Thank you. You're amazing."

"I think you've just had a low bar set so far," Luz quipped. Amity found herself laughing again as the bells shrieked across the school signifying the end of the lunch break.

"Oh, um, one more thing," Amity quickly spoke up before either parted. "Do you want to... Hang out? Over the weekend?"

"Yeah, sounds cool! Pretty sure I'm free," Luz grinned. "Wanna meet up in town?"

"Yeah, that's good," Amity nodded violently. "I'll make something up for Boscha."

"Cool," Luz nodded, spinning around. "I've got to go but I'll send Owlbert over and we can figure it out later, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!" Amity affirmed, her heart racing again as Luz turned around, traces of dark brown hair trailing behind her as she jogged down the corridor. Amity smiled, heat rushing to her face more each second which she fruitlessly tried to shake off. Just one afternoon class then she could go home and plan her weekend.

She glanced back to Luz one more time, inadvertently lifting her arm to reach out before she was gone.

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to R_Robertson for beta-reading this chapter!

_ Just one afternoon class _ , she had told herself.

When she was watching Luz walk down the corridor, it was easy to be hopeful when the idea of meeting up outside of school was fresh in her mind. But when the bell summoned her back to her workstation and she sat, cradled over her cauldron, struggling to listen to her professor through the ringing in her ears, struggling to make out the correct measurements through the blurring moisture in her eyes and the cold shaking of her fingers, it didn't seem so easy.

Her eyes desperately darted to the clock. Just one more afternoon class. She was about a tenth of the way through when suddenly everyone else started to work on their abominations. The teacher wasn't talking anymore and Amity wasn't sure what she had missed. Maybe Skara had been right. Maybe she shouldn't have tried to come to school when she was this ill. It was a miracle that no one else had noticed anything wrong.

The next ingredient in her notes for complex commands was... Ectoplasm? Even though there was already a drop of witch blood in the brew? Everyone knew you should never combine the two in an abomination mix (or any kind of alchemy for that matter.) She thinned her eyes, reading on. The fur of an elder snaggleback (it was very expensive but the school allowed each abominations student some small amount) was supposed to bind with the ectoplasm and prevent it from reacting with the witch's blood, but had Amity forgotten when she had hastily scrawled the steps in front of her that acidic brews ruined the effects of the snaggleback fur?

She eyed the pot in front of her, positively bubbling with hot, acidic purple disarray. She'd need a strong magical catalyst for the snaggleback fur to retain its effect but she had nothing of the sort in front of her, and everything she thought of would have undesirable side-effects.

Her brain sprinted through solution after solution, the world growing more vague and distant between each one. Soon, there was a dull thud on the back of her head and a blurred view of the classroom ceiling overtook her vision. The class was silenced, dozens of pairs of eyes feasting on her limp form.

Next thing she knew, she was lying on a bed in the Hexside medical wing.

Amity leaned her head back slowly, groaning weakly as her back ached. She hadn't felt this bad in years. Though the beige walls and dark curtains between beds were familiar, she'd only been admitted here before following a grudgby accident about a year ago. She remembered biting back tears from the agony in her leg - scrape marks and cuts, blood down her thigh, and some awful grinding of the tissues whenever she moved it rendering her useless for about a week. At the time she had been team captain, and though her stunt had won her team the game, it had injured her teammates too, Boscha included.

Boscha had been furious. It was why Amity never played grudgby again, and why she swore never to end up in this position again too - waiting on the healing coven witches to work their magic then tediously waiting for her body to do the rest.

A lot of good that had been, now that she was here from pure exhaustion. As the quiet stretched on, Amity looked around. At least she had the room to herself.

That was until a quiet knocking on the door in front of her caught her ears.

"Amity?"

She looked up as it was pushed gently open, only to smile in relief as Luz's figure appeared behind it.

"Luz?" She croaked, shocked by the dryness of her throat as Luz scanned the room.

"What's going on, are you okay?" Luz asked, closing the door and rushing to Amity's side.

"I'm just a little sick...," Amity gulped. "You shouldn't get too close."

Luz nodded but ignored her, promptly placing her hand on top of Amity's. It was warm and unbelievably pleasant, and it seemed like the lighter the touch was the more Amity felt it. Her head leaned back against the pillow, her beet-red face staring up at the ceiling.

"No, you're not looking so good," Luz hummed, pursing her lips.

"Don't worry about it, the healing track witches know what to do."

"Excuse me," Luz raised an eyebrow. "You may have forgotten that I'm a healing track witch too."

"I thought you were in the bad girl coven," Amity chuckled, then coughed.

"It's, uh, yeah. That too. But I'm just as good as any other healing track witch, I'll have you know, just, um... I don't know any healing spells yet," Luz trailed off. Amity blinked. "I think the keyword here is yet," Luz whispered. Amity smiled again.

"What are you doing here anyway, aren’t you supposed to be in class?" Amity mumbled.

"Yeah, but I saw them carrying you out so I kinda followed you," Luz shrugged. "I mean you can see why I’d be a little concerned right?"

"I..." Amity paused, regret tugging at her core. She didn't mean to worry anyone. "I understand. Sorry."

"Stop sorrying me," Luz deadpanned. "Not everything-" She continued, but paused as another voice emerged through the closed door.

"-Where the hell's Amity? You said she's in here, right?"

It was Boscha. Luz and Amity met eyes for a panicked split-second before the human darted away, diving for cover in the next stall and drawing the curtain to hide herself just as the main door burst open.

Similar to moments ago, Boscha stood in the doorway, intense eyes digging into Amity's. Oddly, she gave a sigh of relief as she approached, though Amity's blood still ran cold with anxiety.

"Word was going round the class that Amity Blight had collapsed, and had been taken to the medical wing," Boscha spoke, sitting down on the bed beside Amity, opposite Luz. "I had to come and see if it was true."

"...Boscha?" Amity nervously asked.

"As this doesn't look good for either of us," Boscha mumbled, thinning her eyes. "And..."

Amity held her breath, as though suddenly frozen in time. This definitely seemed like one of those moments - a flash of humanity in Boscha's eyes, the slightest tremble in her lip when she didn't know what to say. While Amity lay cold and pale as death, Boscha looked like just a witch who was worried for her.

Boscha squeezed her eyes shut for a beat. And just like that it was gone.

"Ugh, just stop being so fragile," Boscha growled, clenching her fists. "Stop staying up so late at night, or this shit will start happening. I'm missing my potions lesson for this."

"I'm..." Amity breathed, but stopped herself. "I shouldn't have come to school today."

"Yeah, maybe not," Boscha nodded her head. Amity turned her head to look back at the jock. "You..." Again, Boscha froze, her eyes filling with frustration and her jaw tensing. "You're  _ mine _ , Mits. You have to stay healthy."

Amity's logical side felt like bursting out. This was plain stupid. She was exhausted and ill because of Boscha. She was in constant pain because of Boshca's bullying, unable to sleep due to Boscha's laziness in school work. She wanted to tell the girl she was making no sense, that she couldn't stay healthy like this. But all the same, when Boscha's hand came to rest on Amity's bicep the whole world came to a stop and Amity's lips were sealed. She wanted it to last forever. No other thought came to her mind but how much she craved this and how long it had been since Boscha had been gentle.

"Just stay close to me, Mits," Boscha spoke quietly. Amity had never wanted to obey more in her life. "Just do what I tell you. We can both be happy. Stay away from the other girls, they want to steal you from me."

Amity blinked again, realising hot streaks fell down her cheeks.

"Oh, don't get all sentimental on me now," Boscha huffed, rising to her feet and crossing her arms. Amity was weak, like a scared rabbit in the jaws of a wolf. She couldn't stop the embarrassing tears in her eyes nor the rocking chills in her spine as Boscha's tired eyes flicked to the door and back to her. "Listen, Mits," She spoke quietly, taking another step closer and leaning down until her head was just above Amity's. It was all Amity could do to hold in her squeak as Boscha's breath ghosted against her hair, a single finger lifting her chin up to meet the taller girl's gaze. "Stay here. Rest up. I'll get you when school's over." She paused, then leaned in until her mouth grazed Amity's ear. All her hairs stood on end. "And remember," she muttered. "You belong to me."

Amity blinked, petrified. Reduced to a limp mess on the hospital bed, she nodded intently and watched as Boscha hesitated a split-second before turning to leave the room and leaving behind a heavy tension.

It seemed like an eternity before anything broke it. Once it was clear that Amity wasn't going to speak up, Luz cautiously emerged from her hiding place with an expression of mixed confusion and fury. In her trance, Amity had almost completely forgotten Luz's presence so the human's sudden appearance caused her a brief shock. She could only thank the stars that Boscha hadn't noticed the one curtain drawn beside the empty bed next to Amity.

"I .. f... I wanted to knock her to the ground," Luz whispered. "Did you hear the garbage she was spouting? Stop being so fragile?  _ Being hers _ !?" She fumed, glaring at the doorway Boscha had disappeared through as if the girl was still there.

"I'm... Glad you didn't," was all Amity eventually responded with. They both paused, Luz scanning Amity, whose eyes were glazed over, as her irritation grew to concern.

"She really has an effect on you, doesn't she," Luz observed sullenly.

A short silence passed.

"Sorry."

Amity was far too absorbed in her own thoughts to even notice, but the bright light in Luz's eyes flickered. Her gaze fell as uncertainty gripped at her. As lesson time ticked on - precious little time that she absolutely needed to focus in due to her multitrack studies - there was clearly something between Amity and Boscha that she hadn't seen until now. For the first time, she was beginning to feel like she was in the way of something.

"What do you think of her?" Luz slowly asked.

Amity was quiet for a long time before tentatively opened her mouth to speak.

"I... don't know." Amity weakly responded. "I know she-" her voice caught. She paused, then spoke again. "Treats me badly. Even I can see that. But she wasn't always like this!" She quickly added.

"You're attached to her," Luz mused quietly, and Amity quickly stopped talking. It almost didn't seem like she was talking to her. "It's not just fear that keeps you quiet, is it?"

Amity blinked. Her chin still tingled where Boscha had lifted it up. She could feel the hot breath against her face.

"Listen, I won't judge you. Whatever you say," Luz turned back to her. "But I also trust you, even if you have nothing else to say to me."

"It wasn't long ago when she was charming. Sweet, even," Amity said sadly. "Maybe if you'd known her back then, you'd see her differently."

"Amity, you can't keep looking at her as what she used to be. It's not a phase. Boscha isn't some fantasy best friend of the past. Boscha  _ is  _ the girl you see today."

"You- ..." Amity shot, clenching her fists.

_ They want to steal you from me _ , Boscha had told her. She glanced back to Luz. Surely that wasn't true. Not for Luz... Right? The words made sense but her brain was putty. It was still catching up, resulting in an awkward silence between the two girls.

"Look, I've got to go," Luz eventually said. "I'll have owlbert send you a letter, okay? We can make plans this evening. I mean, if you wanna hang out."

"Yeah, sorry," Amity snapped awake, flushing in realisation as Luz edged slightly closer. "Please do."

Luz lingered for a moment.

"Yeah, okay. I hope you get better. And good luck when Boscha comes. And with … tonight," she awkwardly mumbled.

"I'll be okay. She was in a good mood. I think."

" _ That's _ a good mood?" Luz raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know," Amity repeated. It seemed like her motto. Her mantra. "She was..." Her voice caught again - a welling of emotion had struck from nowhere. "Gentle," she croaked, her throat tense as tears appeared in her eyes again. She reactively moved her hands up to wipe the tears away, but there was no hiding it.

"Amity?" Luz gasped, rushing straight back to the witch's side as her chest rocked with sobs.

Amity shook her head, screwing her eyes shut.

"I want Boscha to go back to how she was," she whimpered. "She was so good to me."

Luz blinked, holding her hands awkwardly in front of her, extremely uncomfortable. She had no idea what to do so she just knelt by the bed and tried to calm the crying girl.

"Hey, it's okay Amity, relax," she hazarded. She placed a hand on top of Amity's, whose eyes darted towards her behind a thick veil of tears - wide, vulnerable and terrified. "We'll figure something out. It's going to be alright."

"It's not," Amity shook her head. "If you were right about Boscha. She has to change back," Amity sobbed. "I can't... She... She has to," She voiced weakly. "Or I..."

Luz froze, blinking several times. The clock quietly ticked in the otherwise silent room as Amity laid her head back in surrender with trembling lips and constant sobs.

Luz said nothing. It wouldn't be long before the lesson ended and Boscha would come back to this room. Luz hadn't felt so useless in a long time. She swallowed, an icy flair of anxiety radiating from Amity and rattling her. This poor girl needed a safe place.

"Look, I'll..." Luz attempted, but trailed off.

"Go on," Amity breathed out slowly. "Go back to your lesson." She paused. "We can't have Boscha finding you here."

Hesitantly, Luz stood up, nodding.

"I'll be in touch," she promised, leaving the room. Leaving Amity alone to her thoughts. Her brave face quickly disappeared, and the tears returned.

  
_ Just one afternoon class _ , she had told herself. What a mess she was making.


End file.
